In the present work we use a scanning tunneling microscope to modify the surface structure of epitaxial SrRuO 3 thin films. Point and line etching experiments were carried out in ultra-high vacuum, using tungsten tips. The point etchings showed that pulses fired at small (< 4.5V) bias voltages did not bring about any physical modifications of the film surface, while voltages in excess of 4.5 V led to etched holes accompanied by mounds. Moreover, well-defined line etching was achieved with a typical depth of approximately two unit cells and linewidths as small as 5 nm. The experiments demonstrate that a scanning tunneling microscope can be used for nanometer-scale patterning of SrRuO 3 thin film surfaces.
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