Thermal and electrical properties of bulk and thick films of Se_0.75−xTe_0.25Ag_x (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) for electronic devices

The current work concerned the thermal characteristic of Se_0.75−xTe_0.25Ag_x (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) chalcogenide glasses. Under non-isothermal conditions, differential scanning calorimetry has been used to evaluate the thermal stability of these compositions throughout the temperature identification of the glass transition, T_g, the initial crystallization temperature, T_in, the peak crystallization rate, T_p, and the melting temperature, T_m. Also, the kinetic factor K_r(T) is specified as a further indication of thermal stability. It was found that the Se_0.71Te_0.25Ag_0.04 has the greatest capacity to form glass and the greatest glass thermal stability between these compositions. These findings have been explained using the average coordination numbers of the tested compositions. Also, in this work, we studied the crystallization kinetic of Se_0.75−xTe_0.25Ag_x (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) thick films via measuring the sheet resistance, R_s whose thickness is 1000 nm at heating rate 5 K min⁻¹, in the 300–630 K temperature range. Two significant regions might be detected in the sheet resistance curve using this range and by considering how sheet resistance is derived according to temperature, one crystallization area is clearly present for the investigated films. The Avrami index was measured for both alloys and thick films.