Overview of Materials and Chemistries Used in Atomic Layer Etching (ALE)

This comparison compiles data from Table 1 of “Atomic Layer Etching at the Tipping Point: An Overview” (Oehrlein et al., 2015) https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/2.0061506jss. It lists the materials investigated for ALE, their corresponding precursor chemistries during the adsorption step, the energy sources employed for etching or desorption (e.g., ion beams, plasmas, lasers, neutral beams), and the primary references. The table highlights the diversity of ALE studies across oxides, semiconductors, and polymers, providing a foundational cross-material view of how chemical and physical activation methods have been tailored for near-atomic-precision etching.