Wet chemical etching is essential not only for processing silicon (Si) wafers but also for forming diverse structures, significantly promoting the development of the semiconductor industry. However, tight control of etched topography at the nanoscale and even atom-scale in a controllable and reproducible fashion can be hardly achieved in either laboratory research or industrial production, seriously hindering further enhancement of high-performance Si-based electronic devices. Herein, the roles of mechanically driven defects in wet etching were...
