the purpose of the program reported is to determine if several disadvantages of chalcogenide glasses for solar cell applications can be overcome by chemical modification. these problems include a pinned fermi energy, low carrier lifetime, and the presence of geminate recombination for photon frequencies just above the optical bandgap which reduces the overall quantum efficiency. emphasis is on the selenium-tellurium system. the tasks reported were: to try to overcome the transient effects by stabilizing the glass with a modifier such as arsenic, to reactively sputter the glass in hydrogen/argon mixtures to ascertain whether the introduction of hydrogen would serve to reduce the defect density, and to co-sputter the glass with lithium in an attempt to unpin the fermi energy of the glass and obtain a low-resistance back contact for solar cells stabilization was accomplished with only 1 arsenic. it is found that hydrogenation increases the resistance somewhat and leads to non-ohmic behavior at a lower applied field; however the photoconductivity and the spectral response of the photocurrent are degraded. (era citation 08:007117)