In order to apply to neutral beam etching, several hundred eV neutral beams have been generated by charge exchange reaction using a magneto‐microwave plasma ion source. The charge exchange cross sections for Ar+and Kr+are unexpectedly small, whereas the cross section for Ne+of 300 eV is 1.7×10−15cm2in good agreement with published results. The small cross sections for Ar+and Kr+in the present experiments are explained in terms of a nonresonant charge exchange scheme. The capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements show that the radiation damage to SiO2/Si by Ne0neutral beam bombardment is much less than those by Ne+ion beam and by vacuum ultraviolet photons. Consequently, the neutral beam process is a promising method for charge‐free and low‐damage surface processes.