[labnetwork] Gold e-beam deposition - carbon contamination

[Yakimov, Michael]

Per Kurt Lesler site, "FABMATE® material = 99.9995% elemental carbon."

And just thinking about it, if "filthy machine " can do it better than load locked .. did you try to run right after venting a good one? Just thinking that water and/or O2 may have a role in burning off carbon.
Hearing "carbon contamination " also makes me think about surface contamination. For one outgassing profile is important for carbon removal, fast heating can convert natural CO-CH on the surface into elementary carbon, which is impossible to remove. Maybe quick plasma on samples right before the run?

Mike



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From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> on behalf of Martin, Michael <michael.martin at louisville.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2025 8:44:47 PM
To: Youry Borisenkov <yb2471 at columbia.edu>; Fab Network <labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu>
Subject: Re: [labnetwork] Gold e-beam deposition - carbon contamination

Hi Youry,
   I believe the fabmate is a metal alloy that has no carbon in it. If you're seeing carbon it's probably from somewhere else in your tool. We regularly do gold deposition with fabmate and don't have any problem.

-Michael
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From: labnetwork <labnetwork-bounces at mtl.mit.edu> on behalf of Youry Borisenkov <yb2471 at columbia.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2025 11:59 AM
To: Fab Network <labnetwork at mtl.mit.edu>
Subject: [labnetwork] Gold e-beam deposition - carbon contamination


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Hi All and happy Friday,
I know it is a topic that has been discussed multiple times, however, I'm still lacking a solution that works and will appreciate you sharing your experience.

Currently we are using a Fabmate crucible, and getting some carbon contamination .
For clean Gold layers we use thermal evaporation. The films are good but it requires a lot of gold.

So far we tried using a Molybdenum crucible with and without a spacer. The issue with this approach was that eventually after some time, we get carbon contamination back. I believe it's present in the chamber and eventually a critical mass is built on top of the gold in the crucible, coming from the chamber.

Were anyone successful in overcoming carbon contamination in their e-beam deposition overtime?
What are the procedures you are following? Maybe cleaning more frequently?

--
Thank you,
Youry Borisenkov
CNI<https://cni.columbia.edu/columbia-university-clean-room>
Columbia University
CEPSR 1017, New York, NY, 10027, United States.
[https://sustainable.columbia.edu/sites/default/files/content/crown%20commuter%20badge_0.png]<https://sustainable.columbia.edu/crown-commuter>
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