Recent advancement in metal containing multicomponent chalcogenide glasses

Abstract

Amorphous semiconductors or chalcogenide glasses are the key materials in modern optoelectronics to make comfortable life of our society. Understanding of physical properties (like microstructure, thermal, optical, electrical) of these materials is important for their different uses. Predominant study of physical properties of the metal containing multicomponent chalcogenide glasses have attracted much attention, due to their interesting variable features and wide range of structural network modifications. Structural modifications in these materials are usually described with respect to the values of structural units (or average coordination number). In significance to this, the present work demonstrates the chronological development in the field of chalcogenide glasses along with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) morphologies. Optical, electrical and thermal correlative properties of recent developed Se93-xZn2Te5Inx (0 ≤ x ≤ 10) metallic multicomponent chalcogenide glasses are discussed. Variation in SEM morphology, refractive index (n), extinction coefficient (K), optical energy band gap (Eg), electrical conductivity (σav), crystallization activation energy (Ec) and glass forming ability (GFA) with structural units of Se-Zn-Te-In glasses have been demonstrated in this study. Subjected materials thermal, optical and electrical parameters have been achieved higher and lower in a respective manner at the threshold structural unit value 〈r〉. © 2012 Versita Warsaw and Springer-Verlag Wien.