It has been found that selective thermal desorption of SiO2on Si (111) substrate is induced by electron‐beam irradiation. By using this selective thermal desorption, a nanofabrication technique has been realized by focused electron beams. Open windows of 10 nm width in a SiO2film have been fabricated by this technique. A pattern transfer from the open windows to thin Si films has also been performed by Si growth and subsequent heating. This has produced Si wires of 10 nm width. ©1996 American Institute of Physics.