Etch characteristics of magnetic tunnel junction materials using H-2/NH3 reactive ion beam
- Authors
- Kim, JE[Kim, Ju Eun]; Kim, DS[Kim, Doo San]; Gill, YJ[Gill, You Jung]; Jang, YJ[Jang, Yun Jong]; Kim, YE[Kim, Ye Eun]; Cho, H[Cho, Hanna]; Won, BY[Won, Bok-Yeon]; Kwon, O[Kwon, Oik]; Yoon, K[Yoon, Kukhan]; Choi, JY[Choi, Jin-Young]; Park, JG[Park, Jea-Gun]; Yeom, GY[Yeom, Geun Young]
- Issue Date
- Jan-2021
- Publisher
- IOP PUBLISHING LTD
- Keywords
- reactive ion beam etching (RIBE); magnetic random access memory (MRAM); magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ); x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS); H-2; NH3
- Citation
- NANOTECHNOLOGY, v.32, no.5
- Indexed
- SCIE
SCOPUS
- Journal Title
- NANOTECHNOLOGY
- Volume
- 32
- Number
- 5
- URI
- https://scholarworks.bwise.kr/skku/handle/2021.sw.skku/92307
- DOI
- 10.1088/1361-6528/abb04e
- ISSN
- 0957-4484
- Abstract
- Magnetic tunneling junction (MTJ) materials such as CoFeB, Co, Pt, MgO, and the hard mask material such as W and TiN were etched with a reactive ion beam etching (RIBE) system using H-2/NH3. By using gas mixtures of H-2 and NH3, especially with the H-2/NH3( 2:1) ratio, higher etch rates of MTJ related materials and higher etch selectivities over mask materials (>30) could be observed compared to those etching using pure H-2( no etching) and NH3. In addition, no significant chemical and physical damages were observed on etched magnetic materials surfaces and, for CoPt and MTJ nanoscale patterns etched by the H-2/NH3( 2:1) ion beam, highly anisotropic etch profiles >83 degrees with no sidewall redeposition could be observed. The higher etch rates of magnetic materials such as CoFeB by the H-2/NH3( 2:1) ion beam compared to those by H-2 ion beam or NH3 ion beam are believed to be related to the formation of volatile metal hydrides (MH, M = Co, Fe, etc) through the reduction of M-NHx( x = 1 similar to 3) formed in the CoFeB surface by the exposure to NH3 ion beam. It is believed that the H-2/NH3 RIBE is a suitable technique in the etching of MTJ materials for the next generation nanoscale spin transfer torque magnetic random access memory (STT-MRAM) devices.
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Collections - Graduate School > Advanced Materials Science and Engineering > 1. Journal Articles
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