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 environments. In order to study the presence of possible physical and chemical mechanisms, post treatments of boron nitride coatings were performed using pure argon, Ar/H2, and Ar/Cl2 plasma mixtures. This study reveals the effects of ion bombardment, H/H2 atoms, and Cl/Cl2 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 Cl2 can be used as chemical etchants for sp2 bonded boron nitride.