Determination of continuous electrical conductivity parameters and their influence on partial replacement of antimony with Sn in the Ge₂₀Te₇₂In₈ Chalcogenide glass

In the present work, the changes in electrical conductivity upon partial replacement of antimony by Tin (Sn) in the ternary alloy prepared by the molten cooling method were synthesized and studied. The electrical measurements were performed on Ge20Te72In8-xSnx Chalcogenide glass alloy with x = 0, 2, 4, and 6. The dark conductivity (σd) increases with the increase in temperature in all the samples under the experiment. Observations of data were made at low (300 – 335K), medium (335 – 365K), and high temperatures (365 – 400K) across three distinct regions regarding electrical conductivity. For each of the three conduction regions, the factor that precedes the exponent and the effective energies were calculated using electrical conductivity measurements as a function of temperature. It was found that all of them were affected by an increase in the value of Sn. A numerical analysis of the conductivity equation was also carried out for the densities of the energy for the extended states, localized states, and at the Fermi level. It has been observed that all of them change with the change in the value of Sn.