Electron-Beam-Induced Deposition as a Technique for Analysis of Precursor Molecule Diffusion Barriers and Prefactors

Jared Cullen; Charlene J Lobo; Michael J Ford; Milos Toth

doi:10.1021/acsami.5b06341

Electron-Beam-Induced Deposition as a Technique for Analysis of Precursor Molecule Diffusion Barriers and Prefactors

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2015 Sep 30;7(38):21408-15. doi: 10.1021/acsami.5b06341. Epub 2015 Sep 15.

Authors

Jared Cullen¹, Charlene J Lobo¹, Michael J Ford¹, Milos Toth¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney , Ultimo, New South Wales 2007, Australia.

PMID: 26340502
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.5b06341

Abstract

Electron-beam-induced deposition (EBID) is a direct-write chemical vapor deposition technique in which an electron beam is used for precursor dissociation. Here we show that Arrhenius analysis of the deposition rates of nanostructures grown by EBID can be used to deduce the diffusion energies and corresponding preexponential factors of EBID precursor molecules. We explain the limitations of this approach, define growth conditions needed to minimize errors, and explain why the errors increase systematically as EBID parameters diverge from ideal growth conditions. Under suitable deposition conditions, EBID can be used as a localized technique for analysis of adsorption barriers and prefactors.

Keywords: adsorbate diffusion; electron-beam-induced deposition; reaction kinetics; surface chemistry.