Low-resistivity Pd nanopatterns created by a direct electron beam irradiation process free of post-treatment steps

The ability to create metallic patterned nanostructures with excellent control of size, shape and spatial orientation is of utmost importance in the construction of next-generation electronic and optical devices as well as in other applications such as (bio)sensors, reactive surfaces for catalysis, etc. Moreover, development of simple, rapid and low-cost fabrication processes of metallic patterned nanostructures is a challenging issue for the incorporation of such devices in real market applications. In this contribution, a direct-write method that results in highly conducting palladium-based nanopatterned structures without the need of applying subsequent curing processes is presented. Spin-coated films of palladium acetate were irradiated with an electron beam to produce palladium nanodeposits (PdNDs) with controlled size, shape and height. The use of different electron doses was investigated and its influence on the PdNDs features determined, namely: (1) thickness of the deposits, (2) atomic percentage of palladium content, (3) oxidation state of palladium in the deposit, (4) morphology of the sample and grain size of the Pd nanocrystals and (5) resistivity. It has been probed that the use of high electron doses, 30000 μC cm−2 results in the lowest resistivity reported to date for PdNDs, namely 145 μΩ cm, which is only one order of magnitude higher than bulk palladium. This result paves the way for development of simplified lithography processes of nanostructured deposits avoiding subsequent post-treatment steps.This research was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science through the grant numbers PID2019-105881RB-I00, MAT2017-82970-C2-2-R and PID2020-112914RB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033, including FEDER funding, from CSIC through projects PIE202060E187 and Research Platform PTI-001, and by Gobierno de Aragón through the grant numbers LMP33-18, E12_20R and E31_20R with European Social Funds (Construyendo Europa desde Aragón). The following networking projects are acknowledged: Spanish Nanolito (RED2018-102627-T) COST-FIT4NANO (action CA19140) and OsMolsys (RED2018-102833-T). We acknowledge technical support by the LMA technicians at Universidad de Zaragoza.Peer reviewe