Isotropic plasma-thermal atomic layer etching of aluminum nitride using SF₆ plasma and Al(CH₃)₃

Creators: Wang, Haozhe; Hossain, Azmain; Catherall, David; Minnich, Austin J.

Abstract

We report the isotropic plasma atomic layer etching (ALE) of aluminum nitride using sequential exposures of SF₆ plasma and trimethylaluminum [Al(CH₃)₃]. ALE was observed at temperatures greater than 200∘C, with a maximum etch rate of 1.9 Å/cycle observed at 300∘C as measured using ex situ ellipsometry. After ALE, the etched surface was found to contain a lower concentration of oxygen compared to the original surface and exhibited a ∼35% decrease in surface roughness. These findings have relevance for applications of AlN in nonlinear photonics and wide bandgap semiconductor devices.

Additional Information

This work was supported by the Kavli Foundation and by the AFOSR under Grant No. FA9550-19-1-0321. The authors thank Nicholas Chittock, Guy DeRose, Harm Knoops, Kelly McKenzie, and Russ Renzas for useful discussions. We gratefully acknowledge the critical support and infrastructure provided for this work by The Kavli Nanoscience Institute and the Molecular Materials Research Center of the Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology. Author Contributions: Haozhe Wang: Conceptualization (equal); Data curation (equal); Formal analysis (equal); Investigation (equal); Methodology (equal); Supervision (equal); Validation (equal); Writing – original draft (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal). Azmain Hossain: Data curation (supporting); Formal analysis (supporting); Investigation (supporting). David Catherall: Data curation (supporting); Formal analysis (supporting); Investigation (supporting); Methodology (supporting). Austin J. Minnich: Conceptualization (equal); Formal analysis (equal); Funding acquisition (equal); Investigation (equal); Methodology (equal); Project administration (equal); Resources (equal); Supervision (equal); Validation (equal); Visualization (equal); Writing – original draft (equal); Writing – review & editing (equal). Data Availability: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The authors have no conflicts to disclose.

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Resource type: Journal Article
Publisher: American Vacuum Society
Published in: Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology A, 41(3), Art. No. 032606, ISSN: 0734-2101.