Crystallization kinetics and thermal stability of some compositions of Ge-In-Se chalcogenide system

Seven glasses of the chalcogenide GexIn8Se92-x (14 <= x <= 25.5 at%) system were prepared by usual melt quench technique. The glassy nature of the prepared compositions has been proved through X-ray diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. It was found that the glass transition temperature (T-g), measured at any heating rate, was increased with increasing Ge content. This behavior can be attributed to the increase of the overall mean bond energy (< E >) of the mentioned glasses with the increase of their Ge content. DSC investigations emphasized that all investigated glasses were crystallized into two phases characterized by one exothermic peak. However, the activation energy of crystallization is calculated using both Kissinger and Augis & Bennett methods. Both the thermal stability and the change of heat capacity at the glass transition region were found to increase with the increase of Ge content. This can also be attributed to the increase of < E >. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.