During the formation of the top electrode (T. E.) in spin-transfer torque magnetic random access memory, a slurry with a high polishing rate of SiO2 and a low polishing rate of metal (T. E. material) is required in the chemical mechanical planarization application area. We used a ceria-based slurry with a polymeric additive to maintain the high polishing rate of SiO2 while it suppresses the polishing rate of the T. E. material, tantalum and ruthenium. We found ruthenium showed a significantly higher selectivity than tantalum in the ceria-based slurry. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy was used to investigate the adsorption characteristics of the polymeric additive on the T. E. material. Except for the adsorbed polymeric additive, we found that zeta potential of the T. E. material played a critical role in determining the polishing selectivity of SiO2-to-T.E. material. Crown Copyright (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.