I would like to find a suitable wet etchant for the ~5-nm native oxide
that "rapidly" grows on top of freshly sputtered aluminum upon exposure
to air. My hope is that if the wet etch can be done within a minute of
inserting the sample back into the sputterer loadlock (for the next
patterning step involving deposition of Cr/Au contact pads), the native
oxide will not have time to regrow. The sputterer that I use doesn't
have a dry etch in-situ capability.



Thomas E. Wilson

Professor of Physics and Physical Science

Marshall University

One John Marshall Drive

Huntington, WV  25755-2570

Telephone: 304.696.2752

FAX: 304.696.3243



"Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall [Effect]"

- condensed-matter theorists Lennon and McCartney.