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Abstract
New data concerning the mechanism of photodissolution of metals in vitreous semiconductors are reported. These data give evidence that (1) for the photodissolution to occur the light must be absorbed in the vicinity of the doped/undoped chalcogenide interface, (2) the processes at the doped/undoped chalcogenide interface are the photodissolution limiting step and (3) silver diffuses through the doped film as Ag+ ions. A model is proposed assuming that the photodissolution is an intercalation reaction where the metal/doped chalcogenide interface acts as an electrode/solid electrolyte boundary and the role of light is mainly to lower the energy barrier at the doped/undoped chalcogenide interface which is supposed to be a p-n junction.