2025 Summer Research Symposium • Joshua Mendez • July 9, 2025

Joshua Mendez

he/him

Class of 2026

Major: Physics

Mentor: Richard Cardenas, PhD he/him, St. Mary’s University

Modeling the Effects of Plasma Etching Parameters using MATLAB

This paper presents a study of plasma etching in tungsten diselenide (WSe2), a transition metal

dichalcogenide with promising applications in nanofabrication. We investigate the effects of ion

flux, incidence angle, and energy distribution on etch profiles by developing a custom MATLAB

simulation framework informed by literature-derived experimental data. The simulation models

trench geometry evolution over time and includes visualization of etch depth in 1D, 2D, and 3D.

Preliminary results qualitatively reproduce anisotropic etching trends reported in the literature.

This work aims to provide a scalable computational tool to aid understanding and optimization of

plasma etching parameters for emerging nanomaterials.

Keywords: I Plasma etching, computational modeling, MATLAB, semiconductor

fabrication, surface interaction