Based on the successful growth of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) thin films with Si natural quantum dots (NQDs) of 3-6 nm in mean size, we have fabricated nc-Si:H artificial quantum nanodot (AQD) arrays on Si substrates by a low-cost and industrialized plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition technique through free-standing ultrathin porous alumina membranes (PAMs). In order to well control the morphology of the nc-Si:H AQD arrays, we have presented detailed information on the fabrication of PAMs with controllable thickness (1001000 nm) and pore diameter (50-90 nm). In every nc-Si:H AQD, there are similar to 10(2) Si NQDs, and the sheet densities of nc-Si:H AQDs and Si NQDs are over 1 x 10(10) cm(-2) and 3 x 10(11) cm(-2), respectively. The combination of the AQD fabrication through PAM masks with the Si NQDs in nc-Si:H provides us an easy and practical way for the realization of nc-Si:H based nanodevice arrays with true quantum size effects. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.