Direct writing of gold nanostructures with an electron beam: On the way to pure nanostructures by combining optimized deposition with oxygen-plasma treatment



Belic, Domagoj ORCID: 0000-0002-7954-7046, Shawrav, Mostafa M, Bertagnolli, Emmerich and Wanzenboeck, Heinz D
(2017) Direct writing of gold nanostructures with an electron beam: On the way to pure nanostructures by combining optimized deposition with oxygen-plasma treatment. BEILSTEIN JOURNAL OF NANOTECHNOLOGY, 8 (1). pp. 2530-2543.

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Abstract

This work presents a highly effective approach for the chemical purification of directly written 2D and 3D gold nanostructures suitable for plasmonics, biomolecule immobilisation, and nanoelectronics. Gold nano- and microstructures can be fabricated by one-step direct-write lithography process using focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID). Typically, as-deposited gold nanostructures suffer from a low Au content and unacceptably high carbon contamination. We show that the undesirable carbon contamination can be diminished using a two-step process - a combination of optimized deposition followed by appropriate postdeposition cleaning. Starting from the common metal-organic precursor Me<sub>2</sub>-Au-tfac, it is demonstrated that the Au content in pristine FEBID nanostructures can be increased from 30 atom % to as much as 72 atom %, depending on the sustained electron beam dose. As a second step, oxygen-plasma treatment is established to further enhance the Au content in the structures, while preserving their morphology to a high degree. This two-step process represents a simple, feasible and high-throughput method for direct writing of purer gold nanostructures that can enable their future use for demanding applications.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: FEBID, gold nanostructures, oxygen plasma, postdeposition purification
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 11 Feb 2019 14:12
Last Modified: 13 Feb 2024 15:36
DOI: 10.3762/bjnano.8.253
Open Access URL: https://www.beilstein-journals.org/bjnano/articles...
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3032654