ELECTRICAL, OPTICAL AND STRUCTURAL PROPERTIES OF Ge1sTess-xCux AMORPHOUS SEMICONDUCTORS.

Abstract

Differential thermal analysis ( DTA) showed that, increase in the Cu content, increase both the glass transition temperature (Tg) and crystallization temperature (Tc). The crystallization ofGe-Te-Cu glasses occur with more than one phase. X-ray diffraction of the as-prepared samples showed that the as-prepared Ge1sTess-xCu, films were amorphous. Annealed films showed the existence of GeTeCu, GeTe, CuTe, and Te crystalline phases. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis indicated amorphous - crystalline transformation for Ge1sTess-xCUx films.

The effect of Cu content on the electrical conduction of Ge1sTess­ xCux films was studied in the temperature range (150 - 423 K). The resistivity of freshly deposited films of different composition was found to decrease while increasing the temperature, displaying the behavior of semiconductors. The resistivity of the as-deposited films was found to decrease with increasing Cu content. The activation energy for conduction decreased from 0.46 eV to 0.24 eV, where the Cu content increased from 0 to 7 at.%.