Catalytic Purification of Directly Written Nanostructured Pt Microelectrodes

In the majority of cases, nanostructures prepared by focused electron beam induced deposition employing an organometallic precursor contain predominantly carbon-based ligand dissociation products. This is unfortunate with regard to using this high-resolution direct-write approach for the preparation of nanostructures for various fields, such as mesoscopic physics, micromagnetism, metaoptical phenomena in the visible spectral range, or others. Following early attempts of postprocessing Pt-based structures prepared by focused electron beam induced deposition at several hundred degrees Celsius in a reactive gas atmosphere, recent work has focused on developing in situ purification processes by using a stationary O₂ flux in combination with electron irradiation to oxidize the carbonaceous component of the deposits. Here we show that this purification process is driven by the catalytic activity of Pt and in fact does not rely on the parallel electron irradiation process to function, if the O₂ exposure is done in a pulsed fashion. We suggest a multistep cleaning mechanism which results in pure, nanoporous Pt. By suitably chosen beam parameters, high-resolution Pt dot and line structures with dimensions below 10 nm can thus be conveniently obtained. In temperature-dependent resistance measurements, we find the typical metallic behavior of Pt. In low-temperature magnetoresistance measurements, we see clear evidence for weak antilocalization effects and deduce a dephasing length of 234 nm at 1.2 K. We consider this to be a promising starting point for developing this approach into a versatile preparation technique for Pt-based mesoscopic structures, in particular since the purification process can be run in parallel on different deposits. We furthermore anticipate that our results will spur further research on purification approaches for nanostructures prepared by focused electron beam induced deposition containing a catalytically active metal species such as Pd-, Fe-, or Co-based deposits

Focused Ion Beam vs Focused Electron Beam Deposition of Cobalt Silicide Nanostructures Using Single-Source Precursors: Implications for Nanoelectronic Gates, Interconnects, and Spintronics

Direct-write techniques for the fabrication of nanostructures are of specific interest due to their ability for a maskless fabrication of any arbitrary three-dimensional shape. To date, there is a very limited number of reports describing differences in the focused ion and electron beam induced deposition (FIBID/FEBID) for the same precursor species. This report contributes to filling this gap by testing two single-source precursors for the deposition of cobalt silicide in Ga-ion beam writing and reveals H2Si(Co(CO)4)2 to be a very suitable precursor for the technique retaining the 2:1 ratio of Co:Si in the deposit. Maximum metal/metalloid contents of up to 90 atom % are obtained in FIBID deposits, while FEBID with the same precursor provides material containing <60 atom % total metal/metalloid content. A dense deposit is obtained by using FEBID showing paramagnetic behavior and electric properties of a granular metal. In contrast, the FIBID material is porous and the expected ferromagnetic and temperature-dependent electric properties for dicobalt silicide have been observed. Further analysis enabled the proposition of different dominating material conversion channels based on the observed microstructural features including bubble formation in FIBID-derived material. The differences in materials properties depending on the deposition strategy can influence the cobalt silicide deposits’ applicability in nanoelectronics and spintronics

Direct Synthesis of Hyperdoped Germanium Nanowires

A low-temperature chemical vapor growth of Ge nanowires using Ga as seed material is demonstrated. The structural and chemical analysis reveals the homogeneous incorporation of ∼3.5 at. % Ga in the Ge nanowires. The Ga-containing Ge nanowires behave like metallic conductors with a resistivity of about ∼300 μΩcm due to Ga hyperdoping with electronic contributions of one-third of the incorporated Ga atoms. This is the highest conduction value observed by <i>in situ</i> doping of group IV nanowires reported to date. This work demonstrates that Ga is both an efficient seed material at low temperatures for Ge nanowire growth and an effective dopant changing the semiconductor into a metal-like conductor

Gas-Phase Synthesis of Iron Silicide Nanostructures Using a Single-Source Precursor: Comparing Direct-Write Processing and Thermal Conversion

The investigation of precursor classes for the fabrication of nanostructures is of specific interest for maskless fabrication and direct nanoprinting. In this study, the differences in material composition depending on the employed process are illustrated for focused-ion-beam- and focused-electron-beam-induced deposition (FIBID/FEBID) and compared to the thermal decomposition in chemical vapor deposition (CVD). This article reports on specific differences in the deposit composition and microstructure when the (H3Si)2Fe(CO)4 precursor is converted into an inorganic material. Maximum metal/metalloid contents of up to 90 at. % are obtained in FIBID deposits and higher than 90 at. % in CVD films, while FEBID with the same precursor provides material containing less than 45 at. % total metal/metalloid content. Moreover, the Fe:Si ratio is retained well in FEBID and CVD processes, but FIBID using Ga+ ions liberates more than 50% of the initial Si provided by the precursor. This suggests that precursors for FIBID processes targeting binary materials should include multiple bonding such as bridging positions for nonmetals. In addition, an in situ method for investigations of supporting thermal effects of precursor fragmentation during the direct-writing processes is presented, and the applicability of the precursor for nanoscale 3D FEBID writing is demonstrated