Electrical properties of amorphous Se70Ge30−xMx system, where M represents silver, cadmium or lead

Current-voltage characteristics and DC electrical conductivity were measured for Se70Ge30−xMx (x=0,5 and M=Ag, Cd or Pb) thin film samples as a function of temperature and thickness. DC conductivity increases with temperature and with the addition of Ag, Cd or Pb, while it decreases with increasing film thickness. The observed increase in conductivity with Pb is higher than that with Cd, which in turn is higher than that with Ag. The obtained results showed that the conduction activation energy has two values ΔEσ1 and ΔEσ2 indicating the presence of two different conduction mechanisms through the investigated range of temperature (308-453 K). Current-voltage curves of the investigated samples are typical for a memory switch. The mean value of the threshold voltage Vth¯ increases with film thickness and decreases with increasing temperature in the range (308-403 K) and with the addition of Ag, Cd or Pb. The obtained mean value (0.471) of the ratio ε/ΔEσ2 (where ε is the threshold voltage activation energy) for the investigated compositions agrees with the value of 0.5 obtained theoretically on the basis of an electrothermal model. Moreover, the obtained values of ΔTbreakdown for most of the investigated compositions are in the same order with those obtained before. Therefore the switching phenomenon in the investigated compositions can be explained according to the electrothermal model.