Abstract
Over its rather long history, focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID) has mostly been used as an auxiliary process in passivating surfaces in sample preparation for transmission electron microscopy. This has changed over the last one and a half decades. On the one hand, FEBID has been established as the leading technical approach to lithography mask repair on the industrial scale. On the other hand, FEBID-related technical and methodological developments, FEBID-derived materials, and FEBID-based device fabrication have had a significant impact in various areas of basic and applied research, such as nanomagnetism and superconductivity, plasmonics, and sensing. Despite this dynamic development, the FEBID user base does still form a rather exclusive club of enthusiasts. In this Perspective, our aim is to provide sufficient insight into the basics of FEBID, its potential, as well as its challenges, to scientists working in the broader fields of materials science, nanotechnology, and device development. It is our hope to spark growing interest and even excitement into FEBID which, as we believe, still has to live up to its full potential.
Highlights
AND BACKGROUNDFocused electron beam induced deposition, focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID), is a unique and highly flexible direct-write nanofabrication approach
Focused electron beam induced deposition, FEBID, is a unique and highly flexible direct-write nanofabrication approach. It is based on the electron-induced dissociation of a previously adsorbed precursor gas in the focus of an electron beam typically provided by a scanning electron microscope (SEM)
FEBID is accomplished by the electron-induced dissociation of an adsorbed precursor that leads to fragments, part of which remain as a permanent deposit on the provided sample surface whereas the other fragments are sufficiently volatile to leave the surface to be pumped away by the vacuum system
Summary
Focused electron beam induced deposition, FEBID, is a unique and highly flexible direct-write nanofabrication approach. There are certainly many reasons for this and we venture to collect some of them here: (i) too few scientists know about FEBID in sufficient depth to appreciate its potential; (ii) those scientists who do know about FEBID are not aware of recent developments and dismiss it as a technology that can only provide impurity-rich material and its use is limited to fabricate protection layers for sample preparation in cross section transmission electron microscopy (TEM); (iii) FEBID materials cannot compete property-wise with nanostructured materials obtained from conventional thin film routes and lithography; (iv) FEBID is too complicated; just consider the multitude of different possible dissociation channels at play during electron irradiation of an adsorbed precursor layer; (v) some FEBID materials may be interesting for applications, the process itself is too slow and not scalable toward higher throughput fabrication; (vi) FEBID might be useful in some application fields, it cannot be considered as enabling technology for new directions in research; (vii) FEBID literature is too specialized and the start in using the technique is hindered by the lack of introductory material. In order to have a solid ground to start from, we begin with a very condensed description of the FEBID process itself
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