Electrical switching and thermal studies on bulk Ge–Te–Bi glasses

Bulk, melt quenched Ge18Te82-xBix glasses (1 ≤ x ≤ 4) have been found to exhibit memory type electrical switching behavior, which is in agreement with the lower thermal diffusivity values of Ge–Te–Bi samples. A linear variation in switching voltages (Vth) has been found in these samples with increase in thickness which is consistent with the memory type electrical switching. Also, the switching voltages have been found to decrease with an increase in temperature which happens due to the decrease in the activation energy for crystallization at higher temperatures. Further, Vth of Ge18Te82-xBix glasses have been found to decrease with the increase in Bi content, indicating that in the Ge–Te–Bi system, the resistivity of the additive has a stronger role to play in the composition dependence of Vth, in comparison with the network connectivity and rigidity factors. In addition, the composition dependence of crystallization activation energy has been found to show a decrease with an increase in Bi content, which is consistent with the observed decrease in the switching voltages. X-ray diffraction studies on thermally crystallized samples reveal the presence of hexagonal Te, GeTe, Bi2Te3 phases, suggesting that bismuth is not taking part in network formation to a greater extent, as reflected in the variation of switching voltages with the addition of Bi. SEM studies on switched and un-switched regions of Ge–Te–Bi samples indicate that there are morphological changes in the switched region, which can be attributed to the formation of the crystalline channel between two electrodes during switching.