Glass Formation and Properties of Multicomponent Glasses of the As2Se3-Ag2Te-GeTe System

Chalcogenide alloys of As2Se3-Ag2Te-GeTe were synthesized using the melt-quenching technique. By the visual and XRD analyses, the state of obtaining alloys was proven (glass, crystalline, glass + crystalline), and the glass formation region in the system was established. The thermal characteristics of some samples were determined-temperatures of glass transition (T-g); crystallization (T-cr); and melting (T-m). The basic physicochemical parameters, such as density (d) and Vickers microhardness (HV), were measured. Compactness (C), as well as some thermomechanical characteristics, such as module of elasticity (E), volume (V-h), and formation energy (E-h) of micro-voids, were calculated, and the influence of the composition on these characteristics was investigated. The addition of silver telluride resulted in a decrease in T-g and HV values and an increase in d and V-h values. No thermochemical effects of crystallization or melting were detected in some of the alloys. The obtained results were in agreement with the available literature data for similar systems.