HolographicgratingpreparationinAg/As 30 S 70 multilayerandbilayerstructures T.W agner a, * ,S.Schroeter b ,T.Glaser b ,Mir.Vl  cek a a Department of General and Inorganic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemical Technology, University of Pardubice, LegionÕs Sq. 565, 53210 Pardubice, Czech Republic b Institute for Physical High Technology, Winzerlaer Strasse 10, 07745 Jena, Germany Abstract A new technique for preparing metal-doped layers using photo-induced metal dissolution and diffusion in chal- cogenideglassesispresented.Thistechniqueisbasedonmultilayerstructuresformedbyalternatingmetal(Ag)and chalcogenide (As 30 S 70 ) layers prepared by vacuum evaporation. Such multilayer structures proved to have higher sensitivitytoilluminationandahigherphoto-dissolutionrateincomparisontotheconventionalbilayerstructureAg/ As 30 S 70 .Themultilayerandbilayerstructureswereusedtofabricatephasegratingsbyholographicexposureusingan Ar þ –ionlaser.Gratingspreparedfrombilayerstructuresshowedslightlyhigherdiffractionefficiencycomparetothose preparedfrommultilayers. Ó 2003ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved. PACS: 78.66.J;42.40.E;78.66 1. Introduction ChalcogenideglassesarewellknownIRtrans- mitting materials, having pass bands (depending oncomposition)fromthevisibletobeyond15 lm, andhavebeenemployedinproducingIRoptical elements such as fibers, windows and filters [1,2]. They also exhibit a wide range of light-induced effects which enable them to be used as optical imaging or optical storage media in a variety of applicationssuchasholography,integratedoptics, VLSIlithographyandopticaldatadiscs[3]. It has been suggested that these two unique useful properties of chalcogenides might be com- binedtoproducediffractiveelementsforoperation intheIRspectralregion,sincetheselight-induced effects can be used to make surface-relief or em- bedded structures required for devices such as gratings[4]orphotoniccrystals[5]. Of the various photo-induced phenomena ex- hibited by chalcogenide glasses, the optically in- duced metal dissolution and diffusion (OIDD) effectisprobablyoneofthemostusefulasfaras fabricationofdiffractiveIRelementsisconcerned because it produces the largest changes in the physicalandchemicalpropertiesoftheglass[6,7] (particularlyoftheopticalconstantsandofetch- ingresistance).TherateoftheOIDDprocess,in which the rate of metal diffusion is the limiting * Correspondingauthor.Tel.:+420-406037144;fax:+420- 406037068. E-mail address: tomas.wagner@upce.cz (T.W agner). 0022-3093/$-seefrontmatter Ó 2003ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved. doi:10.1016/S0022-3093(03)00460-5 JournalofNon-CrystallineSolids326&327(2003)500–504 www.elsevier.com/locate/jnoncrysol