Halogen decontamination from metal-containing materials using chemical modification

A method of removing halogen contamination in a processed metal oxide layer without breaking vacuum, the method comprising:

• processing a metal oxide layer using a halogen-containing process gas to form a processed metal oxide layer comprising residual organometal oxyhalide species;
• chemically modifying the residual organometal oxyhalide species using a reactive gas to form modified residual species;
• and
• selectively etching the modified residual species using a direct dinitrogen (N2) plasma to remove the modified residual species.

A processing system comprising:

• a processing chamber;
• a substrate holder disposed in the processing chamber and configured to support a substrate comprising a metal oxide layer exposed at a frontside of the substrate;
• a process gas source fluidically coupled to the processing chamber and configured to flow a halogen-containing process gas;
• a reactive gas source fluidically coupled to the processing chamber and configured to flow a reactive gas;
• and
• a controller operationally coupled to the process gas source and the reactive gas source, the controller comprising one or more processors and at least one non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the processing system to
• process the metal oxide layer using the halogen-containing process gas to form a processed metal oxide layer comprising residual halogen species, and
• chemically modify the residual halogen species to form modified residual species using the reactive gas to decontaminate the residual halogen species.