Reactive Oxygen Ion Beam-Induced Deposition for Concurrent Purification of Platinum Nanostructures

TL;DR

A new method uses oxygen ion beams to create and purify platinum nanostructures simultaneously, improving conductivity and purity without extra steps.

Contribution

O-FIBID introduces a novel reactive ion beam technique that concurrently fabricates and purifies platinum nanostructures.

Findings

Pt content reached 63 at.% under optimal O-FIBID conditions.

Resistivity decreased significantly with increased Pt content and purity.

Simulation supports a purification mechanism involving oxygen activation and Pt sputtering.

Abstract

Oxygen-focused ion beam induced deposition (O-FIBID) enables the direct-write fabrication of Pt nanostructures while simultaneously enhancing purity concurrently through reactive oxygen–deposit interactions. By systematically varying the dwell time, accelerating voltage, and precursor pressure, the Pt content and conductivity can be controlled. Under optimum conditions, the Pt content reached 63 at.%. Across the dwell-time range used for resistivity measurements, the Pt content increased from 20 to 33 at.%, while the resistivity decreased from 2.9 × 104 μΩ·cm to 1.2 × 103 μΩ·cm, which is consistent with enhanced percolation through Pt grains and the lower intrinsic resistivity of the purer Pt deposit. The simulation results support a purification mechanism driven by the beam-induced activation of implanted oxygen balanced against the preferential sputtering of Pt. These results demonstrate O-FIBID as a viable method for the nanoscale direct write of conductive Pt without post-processing, and some deviations from conventional FIBID wisdom are observed. These results serve as a foundation for exploring nascent, reactive focused ion beam-induced deposition processes.

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