EUV mechanistic studies of antimony resists

We have developed a method to study the photomechanism of our antimony carboxylate platform Ph₃Sb(O₂CR')₂. A series of mechanistic studies followed the production of reaction byproducts by mass spectrometer, as they leave the film during exposure to EUV photons or 80 eV electrons. The major volatile products are CO₂, benzene and phenol. The rate of outgassing is well-correlated with the reaction energy of decarboxylation of the carboxylate ligand as determined by density functional theory. Additionally, a deuterium labeling study was conducted to determine the source of hydrogen needed to convert phenyl and phenoxy to benzene and phenol. Specifically, EUV exposure of Ph₃Sb(O₂CCD₃)₂ creates d₀-benzene and d₁-phenol with >95% isotopic purity. Several mechanistic pathways are proposed and discussed.