Glass transition kinetics in ball milled amorphous GaxTe100‐x nanoparticles

• Nano-chalcogenides; the next generation material for phase change recording.
• Synthesis of high yield of a-GaxTe100-x nanoparticles using high energy ball milling.
• The glass transition kinetics of these nanoparticles are studied.

We report the glass transition kinetics in ball milled amorphous GaxTe100‐x (x = 3, 6, 9 and 12) nanoparticles. From field emission scanning electron microscopic investigation, it is observed that ball milled samples of a-GaxTe100‐x contain high yield of nanoparticles with their diameter in the range of 20-40 nm. X-ray diffraction patterns of these samples suggest that these nanoparticles are amorphous in nature. Glass transition kinetics of these amorphous nanoparticles shows that the values of glass transition temperature increase with the increase in composition and heating rate. The activation energy for structural relaxation calculated by two methods shows good agreement with each other and is found to increase with increasing gallium concentration, which can be explained in terms of change in chemical bonding at higher concentrations.