Mechanical and electrical parameters of a-Ge-Se-Sn glasses

Abstract

The present work reports the effect of Sn addition on the electrical and mechanical properties of the GeSe2 glass. The measured ultrasonic velocities are used to estimate the elastic moduli and Debye temperature (TD) of the (GeSe2)1−xSnx glasses. The temperature dependence of the electrical parameters and thermo-electrical power of the studied glasses was determined over the temperature range of 300–450 K. The Young's modulus (Y) and bulk modulus (K) as well as the activation energy for the dark electrical conduction (ΔEdc) were correlated with the glass transition temperature (Tg). The observed changes were explained in terms of the distribution of the formed chemical bonds in each glass sample. ΔEdc values decrease while Y and K increase with the increase of Sn content, i.e. the addition of Sn content to the GeSe2 glass enhances both the electrical conductivity and mechanical moduli of Ge-Se-Sn glassy films.