Electrical switching in the bulk metal chalcogenide glassy semiconductor Cu₁₀(AsSe_1.4I_0.2)₉₀

Abstract

The static and dynamic current-voltage characteristics of the bulk metal chalcogenide glassy semiconductor Cu 10 (AsSe 1.4 I 0.2 ) 90 have been measured in the temperature range 303-373 K. They exhibit a transition from an ohmic behaviour in the low-field region to a non-ohmic behaviour in the high-field preswitching region, which is explained in terms of the theory of space charge limited conduction. It has found that this glass exhibits a current-controlled negative resistance switching characteristic with memory. The electrical resistance obeys an Arrhenius-type dependence on the ambient temperature with single activation energy E σ in the considered temperature range. The threshold voltage decreases exponentially with increasing temperature and increases as d 1/2 with an increase in the thickness of the investigated samples. The calculated ratio E th / E σ = 0.469 (where E th is the threshold voltage activation energy) is very close to 0.5, obtained theoretically on the basis of electrothermal model. Therefore, the switching phenomenon in the investigated glassy semiconductor can be explained according to a physical model based on the electrothermal breakdown theory.

Electrical and Switching Properties of TlBiSe2 Chalcogenide Compounds

“…Similar observed variations have been reported in the literature. 25,27,28,31 The obtained linear relationships lnV th versus 10 3 /T satisfy the following relationship: 23,25 …”

“…This ratio agrees with that obtained theoretically on the basis of the electrothermal model for the switching process. 23,25,31 The observed strong temperature dependence of V th can be understood in terms of the electro-thermal process due to the Joule heating effect, since the TlBiSe 2 compound has strong temperature-dependent electrical conductivity, as explained above.…”

“…Similar behavior to ours have also been reported by others. 20,23,[29][30][31][32][33][34] Due to these observations, we concluded that the possible conduction mechanism in this sample is SCLC. 29,35 In the SCLC transport, the current suddenly increases.…”

“…[19][20][21][22] The switching effect plays an important role in technological applications such as information storage, power control devices, thermistors, oscillators, etc. 23 In this work, we present measurements of the electrical conductivity of TlBiSe 2 ternary crystals in the temperature range from 293 K to 373 K, and investigate the dominant conduction mechanism in the preswitching state of the sample. Our studies reveal that the space charge-limited current (SCLC) conduction mechanism is predominant in these samples.…”

Memory switching of ZnGa2Te4 thin films

“…Threshold switching can be considered as an electronic process and occurs when the charged defect states present in the glass are filled by field injected charge carriers. While, the memory switching is a thermal process with phase transformation of the material, from amorphous to crystalline phase [6][7][8][9].…”