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Electrical switching and topological thresholds in Ge-Te and Si-Te glasses

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Abstract

Melt-quenched GexTe100-x glasses and SixTe100-x glasses (15≤x≤25) have been found to exhibit memory switching, with threshold fields of the order of 4–11 kV/cm and 6–25 kV/cm, respectively. It is found that the switching voltages of GexTe100-x samples increase linearly with Ge content and the composition dependence of threshold voltage Vt shows a marked slope change at x=20, which has been earlier identified as the rigidity percolation threshold (RPT) of the system. Above the RPT, Vt of Ge-Te glasses continues to increase with composition until the boundary of bulk glass formation (x=28). On the other hand, the switching voltages of SixTe100-x glasses increase with x, exhibiting a broad maximum around x=20 (RPT). The difference in the composition dependence of SixTe100-x and GexTe100-x glasses has been understood on the basis of separation between the rigidity percolation threshold and the stoichiometric threshold (CTST) in these samples. The present results also indicate that the turnaround in the composition dependence of Vt and the subsequent minimum observed in the switching voltages of chalcogenide glasses is likely to be due to CTST and not to the chemical ordering threshold (CTCOCRN).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Instrumentation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

    C.N. Murthy, V. Ganesan & S. Asokan

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  1. C.N. Murthy
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  2. V. Ganesan
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  3. S. Asokan
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Correspondence to S. Asokan.

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PACS

61.43.Fs; 72.80.Ng; 85.30.Fg

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Murthy, C., Ganesan, V. & Asokan, S. Electrical switching and topological thresholds in Ge-Te and Si-Te glasses. Appl. Phys. A 81, 939–942 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-005-3221-5

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