Electron Beam Dose and PMMA Thickness Dependent Circularity and Diameter Analysis of Au Nanodots

Abstract

Background: The electrical and optical properties of nanoparticle-based devices depend on the shape, dimension and uniformity of these particles. Methods: In this work, we fabricated ordered Au nanodots using electron beam lithography and thermal evaporation. Au nanodot diameter and circularity varied with a changed exposure dose and resist thickness. Electron beam dose ranged from 5 fC to 200 fC for single dot patterns. Commonly used PMMA thin films of thicknesses 60 nm and 100 nm coated samples were used for investigating the resist thickness dependency with varying dose exposure. Results: The analyses of patterns show that the diameter and circularity of the Au nanodots ranged from smaller to larger diameters and from lower to higher circularities with increasing dose and resist thickness. Conclusion: The distributions of the nanodot diameter began to show Gaussian behavior at larger electron doses. Besides, single circularity value became dominant up to the medium doses and then a homogeneous distribution was observed with the increasing dose.