Stress study of thin As-Se-Ag films obtained by vacuum thermal evaporation and pulsed laser deposition

Thin (As(2)Se(3))(100-x)Ag(x) (x = 0 - 25 mol.%) films have been obtained on glassy and silicon substrates by vacuum thermal evaporation and pulsed laser deposition from the corresponding bulk materials. The stress of the layers deposited on silicon cantilevers was measured by a cantilever technique, which is commonly applied to solid inorganic thin films. The correlation between the stress and the composition as a function of the film preparation methods has been investigated and discussed. We showed that the addition of silver leads to changes in the glass properties, such as an increase of the density and compactness, related to the modification of the stress values.