Electrical switching behavior of bulk Si15Te85−xSbx chalcogenide glasses – A study of compositional dependence

Studies on the electrical switching behavior of melt quenched bulk Si15Te85−xSbx glasses have been undertaken in the composition range (1 ⩽ x ⩽ 10), in order to understand the effect of Sb addition on the electrical switching behavior of Si15Te85−x base glass. It has been observed that all the Si15Te85−xSbx glasses studied exhibit a smooth memory type switching. Further, the switching voltages are found to decrease almost linearly with Sb content, which indicates that the metallicity of the dopant plays a dominant role in this system compared to network connectivity/rigidity. The thickness dependence of switching voltage (Vth) indicates a clear thermal origin for the switching mechanism. The temperature variation of switching voltages reveals that the Si15Te85−xSbx glasses studied have a moderate thermal stability.