Thermal stability of Ge-As-Te-In glasses

The present paper reports the effect of replacement of Te by In on the crystallization kinetics and the thermal stability for Ge(15)AS(20)Te(65-x)In(x) (x = 0, 3, and 6 at.%) glasses. Differential scanning calorimetry, (DSC) results under non-isothermal conditions for Ge(15)AS(20)Te(65-x)In(x) glasses were reported and discussed. The thermal stability of the studied glasses has been evaluated using various thermal stability criteria (Delta T, H-r, H-g and S), based on the characteristic temperatures such as the glass transition temperature (T-g), the temperature at which crystallization begins (T-c), the temperature corresponding to the maximum crystallization rate (T-p), or the melting temperature (T-m). Moreover, in the present work, the K-r(T) criterion has been considered for the evaluation of glass stability from DSC data. A comparison of various simple quantitative methods to assess the level of stability for Ge(15)AS(20)Te(65-x)In(x) (x = 0, 3, and 6 at.%) glasses is presented. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.