AVS 47th International Symposium
    Processing at the Nanoscale/NANO 6 Wednesday Sessions
       Session NS+NANO6-WeP

Paper NS+NANO6-WeP17
Effect of Beam Parameters in Electron Beam Induced Deposition of Rhodium from a Carbon Free Precursor: A Systematic Study

Wednesday, October 4, 2000, 11:00 am, Room Exhibit Hall C & D

Session: Poster Session
Presenter: F. Cicoira, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
Authors: F. Cicoira, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
I. Utke, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
P. Hoffmann, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
B. Dwir, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
K. Leifer, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
E. Kapon, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
D. Laub, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
H.J. Mathieu, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne, Switzerland
P. Doppelt, Ecole Superieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielle, Switzerland
Correspondent: Click to Email
Electron-beam induced deposition (EBID) offers unique advantages over classical resist-based processes, like the capability of depositing in situ conducting or dielectric materials, high aspect ratio supertips, air-bridges and other three dimensional structures. In our deposition system, based on a Cambridge S100 SEM with a thermionic tungsten filament, EBID is obtained by decomposing with the focused electrons a metal precursor directed to the sample surface by an internal needle. Carbon-free precursors are used to improve the purity of the EBID metal containing deposits. The inorganic precursor [RhCl(PF@sub 3@)@sub 2@]@sub 2@ allowed the deposition of nanocrystalline Rh containing supertips and nanowires with diameters down to 200 nm. Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES) measurements show that the Rh deposits contain up to 60% of Rh. The rest of the deposit consists in P, Cl, N and O; no carbon could be detected after removal of the contamination layer. These results are confirmed by TEM investigation, revealing that the deposits have a crystalline structure and are covered by an amorphous 10-20 nm thick shell. TEM images allow also the determination of the Rh cluster size, which depends on the beam parameters used to induce the deposition and show that crystalline lines and tips with high Rh content can be obtained even when low deposition currents (some pA) are applied. In this work, we present a systematic study of the effect of the beam parameters on the properties of the deposits. Different two and three-dimensional structures have been deposited from the same precursor varying the electron energy, the electron current and the scanning speed of the electron beam. The obtained deposits have been characterized by Auger Electron Spectroscopy and Transmission Electron Spectroscopy to determine the chemical composition and the nanostructure for every set of parameters.