ETCHING OF BORON-NITRIDE IN RADIO-FREQUENCY PLASMAS

This work demonstrates that ion assisted etching of hexagonal boron ni tride is possible in addition to sputtering because of the ion bombard ment in rf plasma evironments. In order to study the presence of possi ble physical and chemical mechanisms, post treatments of boron nitirde coatings were performed using pure argon, Ar/H-2, and Ar/Cl-2 plasma mixtures. This study reveals the effects of ion bombardment, H/H-2 ato ms, Cl/Cl-2 on the h-BN content in the films. It was found that, in ad dition to ion bombardment, hydrogen atoms and even more efficiently Cl and/or Cl-2 can be used as chemical etchants for sp(2) bonded boron n itride. (C) 1997 American Vacuum Society.