Deposition of Ge23Sb7S70 chalcogenide glass films by electrospray

• Electrospray film deposition processing of Ge23Sb7S70 films was developed.
• Traditional spin-coated films were also fabricated in parallel.
• Optical properties and surface quality found to be similar between two approaches

Solution-based chalcogenide glass films, traditionally deposited by spin-coating, are attractive for their potential use in chip-based devices operating in the mid-infrared and for ease of nanostructure incorporation. To overcome limitations of spin-coating such as excessive material waste and difficulty for scale-up, this paper introduces electrospray as a film deposition technique for solution-based chalcogenide glasses. Electrospray is shown to produce Ge23Sb7S70 films with similar surface quality and optical properties as films deposited by spin-coating. The advantages of electrospray deposition for nanoparticle dispersion, scalable and continuous manufacturing with little material waste, and comparable film quality to spin-coating make electrospray a promising deposition method for practical applications of chalcogenide glass films.