Signature Of stiffness transition in electrical behaviour of Se-Te-Sn-Ge glassy alloys

ABSTRACT

In the family of amorphous semiconductors, non-oxide chalcogenide glasses (ChGs) are in the spotlight because of their widespread applications in various scientific and industrial fields. In this paper, we have studied thermally activated A.C. conduction in multi-component Se-Te-Sn-Ge (STSG) glassy alloys in bulk form at different audio frequencies. The activation energy of A.C. conductivity and other electrical parameters have also been calculated to explore the material’s conduction mechanism. The A.C. conductivity σ_ac is found proportional to ω^s where ω is the angular frequency. The frequency exponent s is found to decrease with increasing temperature, which is in agreement with the correlation barrier hopping (CBH) model.

The variation of the A.C. conduction with temperature and frequency of the glasses has been studied. Their microstructure has also been studied using the XRD characterisation technique to explore their electrical transport properties. XRD patterns confirm the glassy nature of the as-prepared samples. The change in behaviour of various electrical parameters after 2 atomic weight percentages of Ge indicates the occurrence of a stiffness transition followed by a self-organisation of the corner-sharing and the edge-sharing arrangements of the GeSe₄ phase.

KEYWORDS:

• Chalcogenides
• glass
• A.C. conductivity
• electrical transport
• microstructure
• XRD
• stiffness transition

Acknowledgments

The author (A. Dahshan) extends his appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University for funding this work through a research groups program under grant number (RGP.2/89/42). Neeraj Mehta is thankful to his university for providing an incentive under Institutions of Eminence (IoE) Scheme (Dev. Scheme No. 6031).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi, India and the research scheme is Institutions of Eminence (IoE): [Grant Number Dev. Scheme No. 6031]; Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University: [Grant Number RGP.2/81/41].