I'm an Organic Chemist and I Do What? PACVD? FEBID? FIBID?

Speaker: Professor Lisa McElwee-White Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611, USA

Abstract: 

How does a perfectly good mechanistic organic chemist end up doing this kind of research? Follow the science and you can end up here: Techniques for fabrication of Ru-containing nanostructures have been of recent interest due to applications in building interconnect wires in semiconductor devices and repairing photomasks for extreme ultraviolet lithography. This talk will present mechanism-based design of organometallic precursors for deposition of Ru thin films and nanostructures by three different methods: Photo-Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition (PACVD), Focused Electron Beam-Induced Deposition (FEBID), and Focused Ion Beam-Induced Deposition (FIBID). Precursor choice for any deposition method requires consideration of the reaction conditions and possible decomposition mechanisms for the particular method. The synthesis of candidate precursor complexes, evaluation of their reactivity with photons, electrons, and ions, and deposition of Ru-containing material using the three techniques and simpler experimental models will be discussed.

Bio:

Lisa McElwee-White is the Colonel Allen R. and Margaret G. Crow Professor of Chemistry at the University of Florida. She received a B.S. degree from the University of Kansas and completed her Ph.D. at Caltech. After two years of postdoctoral work at Stanford, she joined the Stanford faculty as an Assistant Professor in 1985. She moved to UF in 1993 and was promoted to Professor in 1997. Following a term as Associate Dean for Administrative Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, she returned to the Department of Chemistry, where she served as Chair of the Department of Chemistry from 2017 to 2024.  

Her research interests center around mechanism-based design of organometallic precursors for the deposition of inorganic thin films and nanostructures. She is the author of 189 peer-reviewed publications and has presented more than 230 invited lectures.  

Her Editorial Board service includes ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Organometallics, and the Journal of Organic Chemistry. She has served as Chair of the Division of Organic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society and was named a Fellow of the American Chemical Society in 2010.  Her recent awards include the Southern Chemist Award (2024), Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal (2019), Charles H. Herty Medal (2019), Florida Award (2015), and the Charles H. Stone Award (2012).