High concentrations of recombination‐promoting impurities in the near‐surface region of a semiconductor can produce virtually complete suppression of carrier‐driven photochemical etching processes. In‐diffusion of Zn to levels appropriate for ohmic contact formation on GaAs (mid‐1020/cm3) has been employed to reduce etching to an undetectable level inn‐GaAs withn=1.0×1017and 1.3×1018/cm3and to produce a greater than ten‐fold reduction in etching of semi‐insulating GaAs. Raman spectroscopy of the altered near‐surface region shows enhanced electronic scattering, which indicates the presence of a sufficient impurity concentration to suppress etching. Transmission electron microscopy shows the near‐surface region to be crystalline without significant numbers of defects following Zn diffusion. Possible applications of this process include self‐aligned etching of transistor and laser structures.