Low-energy electron irradiation of a thin sheet of a potential copper precursor

Copper's strong electrical conductivity makes it a preferred material for the construction of nanoscale electronic devices. In such applications, the deposit's conductivity and thermal behaviour are highly dependent on the purity achieved, which can still be increased using traditional procedures. Nonstandard techniques, such as FEBID in aqueous solution or ion beam aided deposition with plasma treatments, have yielded pure deposits. The use of precursors with multiple copper ions can help increase the quality of copper deposits. This class of metallic complex precursors has been proposed for applications requiring tight composition control, such as alloy deposition. The co-authors from Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toru, Poland, developed a new group of copper precursors [Cu2(R′NH2)2(-O2CR)4] for chemical vapour deposition (CVD) using two copper(II) cations.