Absolute cross sections for dissociative electron attachment and dissociative ionization of cobalt tricarbonyl nitrosyl in the energy range from 0 eV to 140 eV

Abstract

The following article appeared as: Engmann, S., Stano, M., Papp, P., Brunger, M.J., Matejcik, S. and Ingolfsson, O., 2013. Absolute cross sections for dissociative electron attachment and dissociative ionization of cobalt tricarbonyl nitrosyl in the energy range from 0 eV to 140 eV. We report absolute dissociative electron attachment (DEA) and dissociative ionization (DI) cross sections for electron scattering from the focused electron beam induced deposition (FEBID) precursor Co(CO) 3 NO in the incident electron energy range from 0 to 140 eV. We find that DEA leads mainly to single carbonyl loss with a maximum cross section of 4.1 × 10 −16 cm 2 , while fragmentation through DI results mainly in the formation of the bare metal cation Co + with a maximum cross section close to 4.6 × 10 −16 cm 2 at 70 eV. Though DEA proceeds in a narrow incident electron energy range, this energy range is found to overlap significantly with the expected energy distribution of secondary electrons (SEs) produced in FEBID. The DI process, on the other hand, is operative over a much wider energy range, but the overlap with the expected SE energy distribution, though significant, is found to be mainly in the threshold region of the individual DI processes.

Real-time ab initio simulation of inelastic electron scattering using the exact, density functional, and alternative approaches

“…Indeed, inelastic electron scattering by target atoms, molecules, or solids is a demanding problem due to its many-body nature along with the internal degrees of freedom of the excited target. Inelastic electron scattering plays an important role in a wide variety of research fields: electron-beam-induced deposition [1][2][3], electron microscopies [4,5], electron radiation damage in semiconductors and metals [6,7], hot electron inelastic scattering in devices [8][9][10], DNA damaged by electron scattering [11][12][13][14][15][16], electron therapy [17,18], etc. (see Fig.…”

Electron-beam induced deposition and autocatalytic decomposition of Co(CO)3NO

“…This precursor is more stable and easier to handle than the related Co 2 (CO) 8 . Cobalt tricarbonyl nitrosyl was studied before concerning its ionization properties in the gas phase [20–21], the electron induced decomposition under surface science conditions in UHV [22], and the fabrication and characterization of EBID nanostructures under high vacuum conditions [23–25]. …”

“…Dissociative electron attachment is mainly observed for low-energy secondary electrons (<10 eV) and yields incompletely decomposed fragments, mostly [Co(CO) 2 NO] − . Direct ionization occurs for E > 10 eV and results in smaller fragments like Co + or [CoCO] + [20–21]. It was suggested that the direct ionization route leads to the deposition of incompletely dissociated precursor molecules, which in turn influences the content of non-metallic contaminants in the deposit [21].…”

Intermediate energy electron impact excitation of composite vibrational modes in phenol

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7] Of special note, particularly for vibrational excitation and DEA, is when the incident electron is temporarily captured by the target species, leading to the formation of resonances, 8 which can lead to a significant enhancement in the magnitude of the scattering cross sections, [8][9][10][11] than would otherwise be the case, and/or promote DEA. Indeed, it is well known that this resonance behaviour plays a lead role in the dynamics driving the electron-initiated processes in some of those applications (e.g., Ref.…”