Wet atomic layer etching using self-limiting and solubility-limited reactions

Abstract

A method for improving both the microscopic and macroscopic uniformity of materials during etching is disclosed herein. These improvements may be accomplished through the formation and dissolution of thin, self-limiting layers on the material surface by the use of wet atomic layer etching (ALE) techniques. For etching of polycrystalline materials, these self-limiting reactions can be used to prevent this roughening of the surface during etching. Thus, as disclosed herein, a wet ALE process uses sequential, self-limiting reactions to first modify the surface layer of a material and then selectively remove the modified layer.