Selective wet etching of amorphous As2Se3 thin films

• The kinetics of thermally evaporated As2Se3 thin films wet etching in ethylenediamine based solutions were studied
• The annealing and exposure induced structural changes were studied by Raman spectroscopy
• The correlation between the increase of the etching process’ Ea and photo/thermo-induced structural changes was established

Photosensitivity based practical applications of chalcogenide glasses such as high resolution inorganic photoresists require thorough understanding of the relations between the glass structure and the etching kinetics. In this paper we report on the selective wet etching of thermally evaporated As2Se3 thin films carried out using amine based solutions. The relation between photo- and thermo-induced structural changes in thin As2Se3 films and the decrease of the etching rate, increase of the etching process' activation energy respectively, was determined.