The effect of Bi content on the thermal stability and crystallization of Se–Te chalcogenide glass

Abstract

Glass formation and devitrification of intermediate alloys in the Se–Te–Bi system were studied by differential scanning calorimetry. A comparison of various simple quantitative methods to assess the level of stability of the glassy materials in the above-mentioned system is presented. All of these methods are based on characteristic temperatures, such as the glass transition temperature, T g, the onset temperature of crystallization, T in, the temperature corresponding to the maximum crystallization rate, T p, or the melting temperature, T m. In this work, a kinetic parameter, K r(T), is added to the stability criteria. The thermal stability of several compositions of Se–Te–Bi was evaluated experimentally and correlated with the activation energies of crystallization by this kinetic criterion and compared with those evaluated by other criteria. All the results confirm that the thermal stability decreases with increasing Bi content in this glassy system. The crystallization results are analysed and the activation energy and mechanism of crystallization characterized.