for example only tiron 4 5 dihydroxy 1 3 benzenedisulfonic acid disodium salt may also be added tiron is an additive stabilizer at 144 a reducing agent is added to the solution before immersing the substrate in some examples the reducing agent may include titanium iii chloride at 148 the substrate is immersed in the solution for a predetermined period to allow plating by electroless deposition after the predetermined period at 152 the substrate is removed from the solution at 156 in some examples deposition occurs at or near room temperature so no heating is required the electroless deposition method according to the present disclosure allows deposition of a conformal co cofe or fe layer on a conducting surface while avoiding damage associated with other processes such as reactive ion etching furthermore the electroless deposition method according to the present disclosure enables scaling the electroless deposition method according to the present disclosure also offers some advantages with respect to conventional borane based or hypophosphite based electroless deposition processes the cobalt to iron ratio in the deposited film can be tuned independent of the boron or phosphorus content simply by tuning concentrations of the precursors also owing to its relatively slower deposition rate the thickness of the deposited film can be more precisely controlled to less than 10 nm for example only for a 10 nm layer in stagnant electrolyte plating time is approximately 15 minutes the deposition rate can be increased by agitation alternately.