In the present work a so-called diffusion and reaction related model ͑DR model͒ is derived based on the notion that the overall etch rate in the epitaxial lift-off ͑ELO͒ process is determined both by the diffusion rate of hydrofluoric acid to the etch front and its subsequent reaction rate in the process. In contrast to the model that was previously described in the literature, the DR model yields etch rates which are in quantitative agreement with those obtained experimentally. In order to verify the DR model, the ELO etch rate of AlAs 1−y P y release layers is determined as a function of the phosphorus percentage, the release layer thickness and the temperature. In accordance with the DR model, it is shown that the etch rate is reaction rate related by the dependence on the phosphorus percentage in the release layer, and that the etch rate is diffusion rate related by the dependence on the release layer thickness. From the temperature dependence, an activation energy of 0.31 eV could be deduced for the ELO process under the present conditions. © 2007 The Electrochemical Society. ͓DOI: 10.1149/1.2779968͔ All rights reserved. The "epitaxial lift-off" ͑ELO͒ technique ͑see Fig. 1a͒, in which a III/V device structure is separated from its GaAs substrate by using selective wet etching of a thin Al x Ga 1−x As ͑x Ͼ 0.6͒ release layer and transferred to a foreign carrier, allows the production of singlecrystalline thin films of III/V materials.1 Application of this technique is interesting for the optoelectronics industry, because use of thin-film devices potentially results in a more efficient transfer of generated heat from device to carrier or heat sink and significantly reduces the amount of material needed by reuse of the substrates. This is of particular importance for an intrinsically large area, thus expensive devices like high efficiency III/V solar cells, 2,3 and the integration of III/V based components with, e.g., silicon-based devices. 4,5 Recently, at our institute thin-film GaAs solar cells were made based on the ELO technique, which reached record efficiencies of 24.5%.6 This is close to the highest efficiency of 25.1% reported for regular GaAs cells on a GaAs substrate, 7 which indicates that the ELO process is not detrimental to the quality of the thin-film device.In 1978 Konagai et al. 8 described the separation of devices from a GaAs substrate using the extreme selectivity of hydrofluoric acid ͑HF͒ for Al x Ga 1−x As with a high Al fraction. A wax layer was applied to support the 30 µm thick fragile films during the process. Yablonovitch et al. 9 noted that the tension induced by the wax caused the thinner films, of micrometer thickness, to curl up with a radius of curvature r as they became undercut. This was concluded to be beneficial for removal of the etch products, leading to an increased lateral etch rate V e of the AlAs release layer. By assuming that three moles of hydrogen ͑H 2 ͒ gas are produced for each mole of AlAs etched and that the ability of dissolved H 2 , which has a low solubil...