Isotropic plasma-thermal atomic layer etching of aluminum nitride using SF$_6$ plasma and Al(CH$_3$)$_3$

Abstract

We report the isotropic plasma atomic layer etching (ALE) of aluminum nitride using sequential exposures of SF$_6$ plasma and trimethylaluminum (Al(CH$_3$)$_3$, TMA). ALE was observed at temperatures greater than 200 $^\circ$C, with a maximum etch rate of 1.9 \r{A}/cycle observed at 300 $^\circ$C as measured using ex-situ ellipsometry. After ALE, the etched surface was found to contain a lower concentration of oxygen compared to the original surface and exhibited a $\sim 35$% decrease in surface roughness. These findings have relevance for applications of AlN in nonlinear photonics and wide bandgap semiconductor devices.