Peculiarities of Ga and Te incorporation in glassy arsenic selenides

•most of As, Se and Te atoms form pyramidal structural units and chalcogen bridges•coordination of Ga atoms is found to be higher than 3, increasing with Te content•at higher Te content some of chalcogen atoms around Ga form only 1 covalent bond

Effect of simultaneous Ga and Te addition on the structure of As2Se3 glasses is studied using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) and Raman techniques. It is shown that most of As, Se and Te atoms build a covalent network according to their main valences. Three-fold coordinated As atoms form pyramidal structural units, which are connected via bridges of two-fold coordinated chalcogen atoms (Se, Te). On the other hand, coordination of Ga in glassy samples is found to be greater than three, as expected from its valence, increasing with Te content. Some of the As atoms appear to be converted into four-fold coordinated state at low Te concentration, while a fraction of Te and, possibly, Se atoms are thought to exist in a singly-coordinated (terminal) state in the vicinity of Ga in the samples with higher Te concentration.