A layer to enhance nucleation of a substrate is described, including a method to form the layer, the method including obtaining a substrate comprising a patterned feature comprising a dielectric region and a conductive region, selectively forming a self-aligned monolayer (SAM) on the dielectric region of the substrate to enhance nucleation process of a first precursor, and depositing the first precursor on the substrate, the precursor to adsorb on the SAM.