Effect of the Hydrogen Peroxide on the Ti0.4Sb2Te3 Chemical Mechanical Polishing in Acidic Slurry

Abstract

In this work, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) of Ti0.4Sb2Te3 (TST) was investigated in the presense of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) as an oxidizer. The polishing rate of TST reached a maximum at 0.5 wt% H2O2 concentration and then decreased with a further increase in H2O2 concentration. The eletrochemical techniques were applied to investigate the passivation behabivor of the TST under static conditons at pH 2.3 with varying H2O2 concentrations. The TST static etched surface morphology indicated that there were strong chemical reactions taking place between TST surface and H2O2 at 0.5 wt% H2O2 concentration. With the H2O2 concentration further increasing, the chemical reactions were inhibited by the passivation behavior, which was obtained using eletrochemical techniques. In addition, the surface compounds of the TST in the presence of H2O2 were analyzed by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscope (XPS). Finally, Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) was used to characterize the surface quality after CMP. By combining the experimental results, we proposed a possible mechanism of TST in the presence of H2O2.