Electrical switching behavior of bulk Si15Te85-xSbx chalcogenide glasses - A study of compositional dependence

Abstract

Studies on the electrical switching behavior of melt quenched bulk Si<inf>15</inf>Te<inf>85-x</inf>Sb<inf>x</inf> glasses have been undertaken in the composition range (1 ? x ? 10), in order to understand the effect of Sb addition on the electrical switching behavior of Si<inf>15</inf>Te<inf>85-x</inf> base glass. It has been observed that all the Si<inf>15</inf>Te<inf>85-x</inf>Sb<inf>x</inf> glasses studied exhibit a smooth memory type switching. Further, the switching voltages are found to decrease almost linearly with Sb content, which indicates that the metallicity of the dopant plays a dominant role in this system compared to network connectivity/rigidity. The thickness dependence of switching voltage (V<inf>th</inf>) indicates a clear thermal origin for the switching mechanism. The temperature variation of switching voltages reveals that the Si<inf>15</inf>Te<inf>85-x</inf>Sb<inf>x</inf> glasses studied have a moderate thermal stability. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.