Physical and chemical aspects of ZrO2 “dry” etching in BCl3 plasma: the effect of inert carrier gas

A comparative study of both plasma parameters and regularities of ZrO2 reactive-ion etching kinetics in BCl3 + Ar and BCl3 + He mixtures with variable initial compositions was carried out. The combination of plasma diagnostics and modeling tools allowed one a) to figure out key physical and chemical processes determining effects of type and content of inert carrier gas on densities of plasma active species and b) to eliminate most realistic mechanisms of heterogeneous processes responsible for phenomenological etching kinetics.