Isotropic plasma-thermal atomic layer etching of superconducting TiN films using sequential exposures of molecular oxygen and SF$_6/$H$_2$ plasma

Abstract

Microwave loss in superconducting titanium nitride (TiN) films is attributed to two-level systems in various interfaces arising in part from oxidation and microfabrication-induced damage. Atomic layer etching (ALE) is an emerging subtractive fabrication method which is capable of etching with Angstrom-scale etch depth control and potentially less damage. However, while ALE processes for TiN have been reported, they either employ HF vapor, incurring practical complications; or the etch rate lacks the desired control. Further, the superconducting characteristics of the etched films have not been characterized. Here, we report an isotropic plasma-thermal TiN ALE process consisting of sequential exposures to molecular oxygen and an SF$_6$/H$_2$ plasma. For certain ratios of SF$_6$:H$_2$ flow rates, we observe selective etching of TiO$_2$ over TiN, enabling self-limiting etching within a cycle. Etch rates were measured to vary from 1.1 Å/cycle at 150 $^\circ$C to 3.2 Å/cycle at 350 $^\circ$C using ex-situ ellipsometry. We demonstrate that the superconducting critical temperature of the etched film does not decrease beyond that expected from the decrease in film thickness, highlighting the low-damage nature of the process. These findings have relevance for applications of TiN in microwave kinetic inductance detectors and superconducting qubits.