Electron Beam Induced Reactions of Adsorbed Cobalt Tricarbonyl Nitrosyl (Co(CO)3NO) Molecules

Abstract

This study focuses on elucidating the bond breaking steps involved in the electron beam induced deposition (EBID) of nanostructures created from the organometallic precursor cobalt tricarbonyl nitrosyl (Co(CO)3NO) by studying the effect of 500 eV incident electrons on nanometer scale films of Co(CO)3NO. Experiments were performed under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, using a suite of surface analytical techniques, principally X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and mass spectrometry. The purely electron stimulated reactions of Co(CO)3NO adsorbed on gold or amorphous carbon substrates at low temperatures (−168 °C) occurs in two distinct steps. The first step involves a one electron process that initiates decomposition of the nitrosyl (NO) ligand to form a nitride, accompanied by the simultaneous desorption of at least one CO ligand to create a partially decarbonylated intermediate. This first step decomposes Co(CO)3NO into a nonvolatile Co-containing compound and therefore initiates the EBID process. In the seco...