Effect of elemental substitution on transition threshold behaviours of Ge-As(Sb)-Se glasses

Abstract

In this paper, We prepare two groups of glasses: one is Ge<sub><i>x</i></sub>As<sub>20</sub>Se<sub>80–<i>x</i></sub> with x ranging from 5% to 32.5%, the other is Ge<sub><i>x</i></sub>Sb<sub>20</sub>Se<sub>80–<i>x</i></sub> with x spanning from 5% to 25%, by using the conventional melt-quench method, and investigate the effect of the elemental substitution of Sb for As on the threshold behaviors in Ge<sub><i>x</i></sub>As(Sb)<sub>20</sub>Se<sub>80–<i>x</i></sub> glasses. We are to understand to what extent the topological model and chemical order model can explain the correlation between physical properties and glass compositions, and how the chemical composition can affect the glass transition threshold. Glass transition temperature is measured by the differential scanning calorimeter (Mettler-Toledo, DSC1) with different scanning rates ranging from 5 K/min to 30 K/min under a uniform nitrogen gas flow of 50 mL/min, the glass density is measured by a Mettler H20 balance with a MgO crystal used as a reference. Samples of each glass composition are weighed five times and the average density is recorded. The refractive index of the glass at 1.5 um is measured by a Metricon Model 2010 prism coupler. Raman spectra are measured by a T64000 Jobin-Yvon-Horiba micro-Raman spectrometer equipped with a liquid-nitrogen-cooled CCD detector. The 830 nm laser line is used as an excitation source, and the laser power is kept as small as possible to avoid any photo-induced effects. The resolution of the spectrometer is about 0.5 cm<sup>–1</sup>. The systematic measurements of these physical parameters show that while the transition thresholds at MCN = 2.4 and 2.67 are verified in the Ge-As-Se glasses with ideal covalent network, these two transitions represent the covalent network structure inside the glass from an under-constrained “floppy” network to an over-constrained “rigid” phase and from the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional “stressed rigid” phase respectively. However, when As is substituted by Sb, the the resulting Ge<sub><i>x</i></sub>Sb<sub>20</sub>Se<sub>80–<i>x</i></sub> glass with non-ideal covalent network will change its transition threshold, changing into the chemically stoichiometric composition. We further deconvolve Raman scattering spectra into different structural units and the change of their respective intensity shows the same behavior, which is ascribed to the chemical effect induced by a large difference in atomic radius between As and Sb, and a relatively strong ionic feature of element Sb.