Selective dry etching of manganite thin films for high sensitive magnetoresistive sensors

Remarkable chemical enhancement in etch rate of La-manganite thin film is obtained in CO/NH3 reactive ion etching. The etch rate of 70 nm/min and the selectivity of 4.7 for LSMO thin films over Ti mask are achieved. The edge morphology of the patterned La-manganite becomes significantly smooth compared with pure Ar ion milling. A possible plasma chemistry is also proposed. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.