Amorphous to Amorphous Insulator-Metal transition in GeSe${}_3$:Ag glasses

Abstract

We study an insulator-metal transition in a ternary chalcogenide glass (GeSe${}_3$)${}_{1-x}$Ag${}_x$ for $x$=0.15 and 0.25. The conducting phase of the glass is obtained by using "Gap Sculpting" (Prasai et al, Sci. Rep. 5:15522 (2015)) and it is observed that the metallic and insulating phases have nearly identical DFT energies but have a conductivity contrast of ~10${}^8$. The transition from insulator to metal involves growth of an Ag-rich phase accompanied by a depletion of tetrahedrally bonded Ge(Se${}_{1/2}$)${}_4$ in the host network. The relative fraction of the amorphous Ag${}_2$Se phase and GeSe${}_2$ phase is shown to be a critical determinant of DC conductivity.

4 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (2)

• Insulating Behavior of an Amorphous Graphene Membrane
• Ab initio estimate of temperature dependence of electrical conductivity in a model amorphous material: hydrogenated amorphous silicon

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Structural origins of electronic conduction in amorphous copper-doped alumina