title: Electron-beam induced deposition and autocatalytic decomposition of Co(CO)3NO.
abstract: The autocatalytic growth of arbitrarily shaped nanostructures fabricated by electron beam-induced deposition (EBID) and electron beam-induced surface activation (EBISA) is studied for two precursors: iron pentacarbonyl, Fe(CO)5, and cobalt tricarbonyl nitrosyl, Co(CO)3NO. Different deposits are prepared on silicon nitride membranes and silicon wafers under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, and are studied by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and scanning transmission X-ray microscopy (STXM), including near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. It has previously been shown that Fe(CO)5 decomposes autocatalytically on Fe seed layers (EBID) and on certain electron beam-activated surfaces, yielding high purity, polycrystalline Fe nanostructures. In this contribution, we investigate the growth of structures from Co(CO)3NO and compare it to results obtained from Fe(CO)5. Co(CO)3NO exhibits autocatalytic growth on Co-containing seed layers prepared by EBID using the same precursor. The growth yields granular, oxygen-, carbon- and nitrogen-containing deposits. In contrast to Fe(CO)5 no decomposition on electron beam-activated surfaces is observed. In addition, we show that the autocatalytic growth of nanostructures from Co(CO)3NO can also be initiated by an Fe seed layer, which presents a novel approach to the fabrication of layered nanostructures.
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie II and Interdisciplinary Center for Molecular Materials (ICMM), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstr. 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vollnhals
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie II and Interdisciplinary Center for Molecular Materials (ICMM), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstr. 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Drost
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie II and Interdisciplinary Center for Molecular Materials (ICMM), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstr. 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie II and Interdisciplinary Center for Molecular Materials (ICMM), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstr. 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Esther
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Carrasco
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie II and Interdisciplinary Center for Molecular Materials (ICMM), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstr. 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Späth
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie II and Interdisciplinary Center for Molecular Materials (ICMM), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstr. 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Rainer H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Fink
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie II and Interdisciplinary Center for Molecular Materials (ICMM), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstr. 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Steinrück
authors.affiliation: Lehrstuhl für Physikalische Chemie II and Interdisciplinary Center for Molecular Materials (ICMM), Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Egerlandstr. 3, 91058 Erlangen, Germany.
authors.forename: Hubertus
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Marbach
keywords: autocatalytic growth; cobalt tricarbonyl nitrosyl; electron-beam induced deposition; nanofabrication; scanning transmission X-ray microscopy