Plasma lab findings could lead to ever-more powerful microchips and supercomputers

https://phys.org/news/2022-03-plasma-lab-ever-more-powerful-microchips.html

"The model simulated the sequential use of chlorine gas and argon plasma ions to control the silicon etch process on an atomic scale. Plasma, or ionized gas, is a mixture consisting of free electrons, positively charged ions and neutral molecules. The plasma used in semiconductor device processing is near room temperature, in contrast to the ultra-hot plasma used in fusion experiments... ALE process became particularly effective when the ion energies were quite a bit higher than the ones we started with"