Etching of boron nitride in radio frequency plasmas

This work demonstrates that ion assisted etching of hexagonal boron nitride is possible in addition to sputtering because of the ion bombardment in rf plasma evironments. In order to study the presence of possible 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 atoms, Cl/Cl-2 on the h-BN content in the films. It was found that, in addition 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 nitride. (C) 1997 American Vacuum Society.