Ligand Size and Carbon-Chain Length Study of Silver Carboxylates in Focused Electron-Beam-Induced Deposition

Gas-assisted focused electron-beam-induced deposition is a versatile tool for the direct writing of complex-shaped nanostructures with unprecedented shape fidelity and resolution. While the technique is well-established for various materials, the direct electron beam writing of silver is still in its infancy. Here, we examine and compare five different silver carboxylates, three perfluorinated: [Ag 2 (µ-O 2 CCF 3 ) 2 ], [Ag 2 (µ-O 2 CC 2 F 5 ) 2 ], and [Ag 2 (µ-O 2 CC 3 F 7 ) 2 ], and two containing branched substituents: [Ag 2 (µ-O 2 CCMe 2 Et) 2 ] and [Ag 2 (µ-O 2 C t Bu) 2 ], as potential precursors for focused electron-beam-induced deposition. All of the compounds show high sensitivity to electron dissociation and efficient dissociation of Ag-O bonds. The as-deposited materials have silver contents from 42 at.% to above 70 at.% and are composed of silver nano-crystals with impurities of carbon and fluorine between them. Precursors with the shortest carbon-fluorine chain ligands yield the highest silver contents. In addition, the deposited silver content depends on the balance of electron-induced ligand co-deposition and ligand desorption. For all of the tested compounds, low electron flux was related to high silver content. Our findings demonstrate that silver carboxylates constitute a promising group of precursors for gas-assisted focused electron beam writing of high silver content materials.