Investigation of the correlation between physico-chemical, optical and thermal properties of (GeS2)60(Sb2S3)40−x(CdCl2)x chalcohalide glasses

Abstract

The correlation between physico-chemical, optical, and thermal properties of (GeS2)60(Sb2S3)40−x(CdCl2)x (x = 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 mol%) chalcohalide glasses was systematically investigated through the replacement of Sb2S3 by CdCl2. The optical band gap was estimated based on the system density, and it was turned out that it hardly increased from 2.16 to 2.3 eV with increasing CdCl2 content from 0 to 40 mol%. Moreover, we theoretically determined the valence band (EVB) and conduction band (ECB) positions using the calculated band gap values. The molar volume of the studied system increased while the density as well as the packing density decreased by increasing CdCl2 content. The average coordination number, the constraints number, the mean bond energy, and the average heat of atomization have been calculated via the chemical bond approach and have been found to decrease when the CdCl2 content increases. On the other hand, the number of lone-pair electrons and the cohesive energy have been found to increase. Finally, the variation of the glass-transition temperature was also discussed in terms of the overall mean bond, and it was found to decrease with increasing CdCl2 content.