Photo-induced dissolution effect in Ag/AS33S67 multilayer structures and its potential application

A new technique for preparing metal-doped layers using photo-induced metal dissolution in chalcogenide glasses is presented. This technique is based on multilayer structures formed by alternating metal (Ag) and chalcogenide (As33S67) layers prepared by vacuum evaporation. Such multilayer structures have a greater sensitivity to illumination and a larger photo-dissolution rate in comparison to the conventional double layer structure Ag/As33S67. The multilayer structure was used to fabricate a phase grating for operation in the IR region. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.