Bake strategies to enhance lithographic performance of metal-containing resist

A method of baking a photoresist layer on a substrate, the method comprising:

• receiving the substrate in a process chamber, the substrate comprising the photoresist layer thereon after completion of deposition of the photoresist layer, wherein the photoresist layer comprises a metal-containing photoresist material;
• flowing two or more reactive gas species from one or more gas sources, through one or more gas delivery lines, into the process chamber, and exposing the substrate to the two or more reactive gas species in the process chamber after the completion of the deposition of the photoresist layer;
• and
• baking the photoresist layer, after the completion of the deposition of the photoresist layer, while the substrate is exposed to the two or more reactive gas species, wherein each of the two or more reactive gas species is selected from the group consisting of:
• water, hydrogen, hydrogen peroxide, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, ammonia, nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, acetyl acetone, formic acid, oxalyl chloride, pyridine, a carboxylic acid, and an amine.