Energy dissipation in a thin polymer film by electron beam scattering: Experiment

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Abstract
A series of experiments of scanning electron beam exposure of PMMA films on silicon, copper, and gold substrates is described, and compared with the calculations of Monte Carlo and analytic models of energy dissipation per unit volume. Film thickness was varied from 1000 to 10 000 Å, accelerating voltage from 10 to 20 kV, and linear charge density from 1×10−9 to 1×10−5 C/cm. Good agreement was obtained in the comparison with the predictions of Monte Carlo calculations, whereas some discrepancies were observed in the comparison with the analytic models. The assumption inherent in the theoretical approaches that PMMA acts like a linear recording medium, in the sense that exposure is additive, is experimentally evaluated by means of an Abel inversion. The assumption that developed profiles represent surfaces of equal energy dissipation was examined by means of a computer simulation of the development process.