Abstract
Focused Ion Beam (FIB) surgery techniques need to develop to match the new challenges. One area for performance enhancement is in the deposition of lower resistivity conducting materials. At the present time, the two most commonly used materials for conductive deposition are Platinum and Tungsten. The main issue concerning these two materials is the relatively high resistivity of the deposited material; the deposited film can have 100 to 200 times the resistivity of the pure material. FIB-induced deposition of gold films have been commonly used in the repair of masks. In this application the resistivity of the deposited sample is of little importance. An examination of C7H10AuF3O2 (t-fac) as a precursor gas shows that its resistivity when deposited with a FIB is 4-5 times lower than that of Platinum or Tungsten. The deposition rate is also significantly quicker. No electric-migration and dendrite formation was noticed after the Gold deposition was subjected to continuous current flow. However, the thermal stability of the pre-cursor gas is low and will need further refinement. (1,2,6)
