Calorimetric study of amorphous Sb-Se thin films

The crystallization of amorphous SbxSe100-x (40 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 70 at.%) alloy thin films prepared by vacuum deposition was studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The crystalline phases were identified as Sb,Se, and Sb. The compositional dependence of the glass transition and crystallization temperatures as well as the heat of crystallization were determined all of them being with maximal values at composition close to the eutectics of the Sb-Se system. These thermodynamic quantities decrease with further increasing of the antimony concentration in thin films. The crystallization kinetics was measured using non-isothermal treatment mainly. The effective activation energies of crystallization were estimated to be in the 2.48-2.66 eV range and the frequency factors were between 10(26)-10(28) s(-1). (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.