Effect of composition on the thermal stability for Ge-In-Se intermediate compound

The glass formation and devitrification of intermediate alloys in the Ge-In-Se system were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). A comparison of various simple quantitative methods to assess the level of stability of the glassy materials in the above-mentioned system is presented. All of these methods are based on characteristic temperatures, such as the glass transition temperature, T_g, the onset temperature of crystallization, T_c, the temperature corresponding to the maximum crystallization rate, T_p and the melting temperature, T_m. In this work, the parameter of kinetic criterion K_r(T) is added to the stability criteria. The intermediate glass formation and devitrification of Ge₈In₈Se₈₄ proved that it is more stable than the other intermediate compositions under test because the activation energy of transition, E_g (97.2 kJ/mol) of this composition shows minimum, at its average coordination number r = 2.4.