Raman and FTIR Studies on Chalcogenide Glasses

Investigation of amorphous and crystalline regions of chalcogenide glasses is of practical interest for obtaining new materials with semiconducting properties. They have potential applications in infrared region due to their heavy elemental masses, continuous variation of band gap-energies and lattice constants as well as electrical properties, with compositions. Due to their high optical nonlinearity, they could be useful for optical switching and as memory elements. Chalcogenide glasses can be doped by rare earth elements, such as Er, Nd, Pr, etc., and hence numerous applications of active optical devices have been proposed. Furthermore, since chalcogenide glass fibers transmit in the IR, there are numerous potential applications in the civil, medical, and military areas. To understand the nature of the electronic processes in non-crystalline semiconductors, it is necessary first of all to investigate their optical properties and the phenomena of charge carrier transfer in such materials. Accordingly, FTIR and Raman Spectroscopy measurements in chalcogenide glasses and conductivity measurements as function of temperature are presented in this research work.