Low-energy electron interaction and focused electron beam-induced deposition of molybdenum hexacarbonyl (Mo(CO)6)

Po-Yuan Shih; Maicol Cipriani; Christian Felix Hermanns; Jens Oster; Klaus Edinger; Armin Gölzhäuser; Oddur Ingólfsson

doi:10.3762/bjnano.13.13

Low-energy electron interaction and focused electron beam-induced deposition of molybdenum hexacarbonyl (Mo(CO)₆)

Beilstein J Nanotechnol. 2022 Feb 4:13:182-191. doi: 10.3762/bjnano.13.13. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Po-Yuan Shih^#^{1

2}, Maicol Cipriani^#³, Christian Felix Hermanns¹, Jens Oster¹, Klaus Edinger¹, Armin Gölzhäuser², Oddur Ingólfsson³

Affiliations

¹ Carl Zeiss SMT GmbH, Industriestraße 1, 64380 Roßdorf, Germany.
² Faculty of Physics, Bielefeld University, 33615 Bielefeld, Germany.
³ Science Institute and Department of Chemistry, University of Iceland, Dunhagi 3, 107 Reykjavik, Iceland.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Motivated by the potential role of molybdenum in semiconductor materials, we present a combined theoretical and experimental gas-phase study on dissociative electron attachment (DEA) and dissociative ionization (DI) of Mo(CO)₆ in comparison to focused electron beam-induced deposition (FEBID) of this precursor. The DEA and DI experiments are compared to previous work, differences are addressed, and the nature of the underlying resonances leading to the observed DEA processes are discussed in relation to an earlier electron transmission study. Relative contributions of individual ionic species obtained through DEA and DI of Mo(CO)₆ and the average CO loss per incident are calculated and compared to the composition of the FEBID deposits produced. These are also compared to gas phase, surface science and deposition studies on W(CO)₆ and we hypothesize that reductive ligand loss through electron attachment may promote metal-metal bond formation in the deposition process, leading to further ligand loss and the high metal content observed in FEBID for both these compounds.

Keywords: dissociative electron attachment; dissociative ionisation; focused electron beam-induced deposition; molybdenum hexacarbonyl.

Grants and funding

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 722149. M.C. and O.I. acknowledge support from the Icelandic Center of Research (RANNIS), grant no. 13049305(1−3). MC acknowledges a doctoral grant from the University of Iceland Research Fund.