Crystalline and amorphous chalcogenides, high-tech materials with structural disorder and many important applications

Abstract

The paper reviews and discusses crystalline, nanocrystalline, glassy and amorphous chalcogenides and their thin films and fibres, their preparation, structure, properties, changes and applications in optics, optoelectronics and electronics, data storage and sensors with accent on recent data and progress. The area of interest is so broad that only some materials and processes could be discussed in detail, and a lot of data were chosen for the sake of illustration only. Various ways of the preparation of crystalline, glassy and amorphous chalcogenides, their crystals, thin films and nanoparticles are mentioned; the structure, properties and applications of individual groups of materials are discussed. The applications are numerous: in the infrared technique, data storage, in light transformation and emission, in sensors, X-ray sensors, Xerox facilities, luminophors, lasers, ferroelectrics, thermoelectrics, catalysers, plasmonics materials; in topological insulators, fibres, in light up-conversion, nanodots and nanomaterials; in one-, two-, and three-dimensional systems, planar optical circuits, waveguides, non-linear optical and optomechanical devices, in surgical instruments, etc. Some of them are discussed in detail. The review paper is based on several lectures presented on the occasion of "Nanomaterials and Nanoarchitectures International Summer School, Advanced Study Institute of NATO", held in June/July 2013, in Cork, Ireland. The paper is primarily devoted to MSc. and Ph.D. students and postdoctoral students of solid state physics, solid state chemistry, material science and material engineering, but also to researchers as well as to general audience interested in science and technical progress, in order to help them understand and apply some of these materials and data.