The electrical properties of micrometre-sized inversion-layer (IL) emitters in crystalline Si are investigated by measuring their current-voltage characteristics using a so-called NOSFET device. The IL emitter is induced by a SiN/SIO double-layer stack. We show that by scanning the surface with a negatively biased tip; the IL emitter below the tip can be controllably eliminated. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.