Interhalogen Plasma Chemistries for the Etching of NiMnSb

摘要

NiMnSb thin films have been etched in plasmachemistries ICl and IBr, under inductively coupled plasmaconditions. These inter-halogens produce practical etch rates(500-1500?/min-1) provided the incident ion energy is abovethreshold values (~120 eV for ICl, ~230eV for IBr) and there is abalance of etch product formation and desorption through controlof the ion and reactive neutral fluxes. Both chemistries appearpromising for pattern transfer in NiMnSb-based spin polarized magnetic devices.