Etching of new phase change material Ti 0.5 Sb 2 Te 3 by Cl 2 /Ar and CF 4 /Ar inductively coupled plasmas

Zhonghua Zhang, Sannian Song, Zhitang Song, Yan Cheng, Min Zhu, Xiaoyun Li, Yueqin Zhu, Xiaohui Guo, Weijun Yin, Liangcai Wu, Bo Liu, Songlin Feng, Dong Zhou

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The etching characteristics of new phase change material Ti 0.5 Sb 2 Te 3 (TST) were studied with the Cl 2 /Ar or CF 4 /Ar gas mixture using inductively coupled plasmas system. The effects of gas-mixing ratio, bias power, gas pressure, applying ICP power on the variations of etch rate, etch profiles, and surface roughness were investigated, respectively. Furthermore, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) compositional depth profiling was used to determine the surface degradation of etched TST using Cl 2 /Ar and CF 4 /Ar gas mixture. The etched TST shows a shift of the peaks related to Sb and Te to a higher energy for both etching gas, indicating the surface degradation of TST after etching. TST etched by Cl 2 shows a thicker chloride layer remaining on the etched surface than fluorinate layer etched by CF 4 owing to the higher reactivity. In the case of CF 4 , a thinner C-F polymer layer was observed on the etched surface, indicating lower etch rate due to the difficulty in making F diffusion into the TST through the C-F layer.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)68-73
Number of pages6
JournalApplied Surface Science
Volume311
DOIs
StatePublished - 30 Aug 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Etching
  • ICP
  • Phase change material
  • Ti-Sb-Te

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