Azmain Hossain1,Haozhe Wang1,David Catherall1,Russ Renzas2,Harm Knoops2,3,Austin Minnich1
California Institute of Technology1,Oxford Instruments2,Technische Universiteit Eindhoven3
Azmain Hossain1,Haozhe Wang1,David Catherall1,Russ Renzas2,Harm Knoops2,3,Austin Minnich1
California Institute of Technology1,Oxford Instruments2,Technische Universiteit Eindhoven3
We report isotropic plasma atomic layer etching (ALE) of titanium nitride (TiN) using sequential and self-limiting oxidation and etching steps. TiN is oxidized to TiO<sub>2</sub> via exposure to O<sub>2</sub> gas which is subsequently spontaneously etched by exposure to a H<sub>2</sub> and SF<sub>6</sub> plasma. The process exploits the selectivity of spontaneous etching of TiO<sub>2</sub> over TiN with the plasma. A 4:1 ratio of H<sub>2</sub>:SF<sub>6</sub> is shown to be highly selective, etching TiO<sub>2</sub> but exhibiting negligible etching of TiN over 50 cycles. TiN ALE was observed at temperatures between 200°C and 300°C, with a maximum etch rate of 0.8 Å/cycle observed at 300°C, measured using ex-situ ellipsometry. After ALE, the etched surface was characterized using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. These findings have relevance for applications of TiN in microwave kinetic inductance detectors and superconducting qubits.