chemical attack of amorphous carbon

[physicist888]

Hi everyone,
i wonder if anyone has an idea how to attack chemically an amorphous carbon film. Is it possible to completely dissociate an amorphous carbon in a chemical solvent???
thanks for your help

[f95toli]

a-carbon is often used as a hard mask in e.g. nanolithography but as far as I know it is then always removed using oxygen plasma (that is what I always used back when I was actually doing some cleanroom work); do you have access to an asher?

[physicist888]

Actually it's well known that plasma oxygen attack will remove the a-Carbon. Such expermint take so long, its hard a little, and actually i dont have access to it all the time. that's why i thought that maybe i can etch the a-Carbon chemical attack, by a solvant (acid, base)... dont know

[Mapes]

Piranha solution might work. A fume hood and personal protective gear (face mask, nitrile gloves, apron) are absolutely required.

[f95toli]

I asked a colleague who has got a lot of experience with films of a-carbon, he tells me that it is almost impossible to remove them chemically.

Why does it take you so long when using oxygen plasma? As far as I remember it only took a few minutes to completely remove all carbon in plasma.
Of course there is also of pump-down time of the system etc but that shouldn't be very long for an asher, you do not need very low pressures for this.