Dry etching of surface textured zinc oxide using a remote argon-hydrogen plasma

A new method for fast dry etching of inherently textured ZnO using a remote argon-hydrogen plasma created by a cascaded arc is presented, obtaining etch rates over 10 nm/s. Atomic hydrogen is considered to be the reactive species responsible for the etching process, the excess of molecular hydrogen in the gas phase does not contribute to the etching. Furthermore, using in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry (sub-) surface film modification competitive to etching is observed. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.