Characterization of negative differential resistance in chalcogenide devices containing silver

Summary form only given. Chalcogenide materials are compounds that contain one of the group VI elements such as sulfur (S), selenium (Se), and tellurium (Te). These materials are presently under research in industry and academia for their potential use in electronic memory devices. An electrical property called negative differential resistance (NDR) has been observed in chalcogenide devices containing silver (Ag). NDR describes the I-V characteristics of the device where the resistance has a negative slope. Some of the devices that operate in the NDR region are the tunnel diode, resonant tunnel diode, unijunction transistor, and Gunn diode. The research work presented in this poster includes the measured I-V characteristics of chalcogenide devices exhibiting the NDR property. The electrical data obtained is compared with existing device models to determine a potential mechanism responsible for the observed NDR in silver-containing chalcogenide devices