Calorimetry to Understand Structural Relaxation in Chalcogenide Glasses

Abstract

Thermal behavior of chalcogen additive materials synthesized via melt quench method can be studied by reheating the bulk samples in differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) or differential thermal analyzer (DTA) experiment. It involves kinetics of structural transformations as three basic characteristic phenomena correspond to glass transition, crystallization and melting are involved. Thermal stability and glass forming ability are important factors from technological point of view in various applications. Thermal stability of glasses can be ascertained based on calorimetric measurements. In the glass transition region (first region in reheating experiment), structural relaxation takes place. The temperature in glass transition region, its heating rate dependence and empirical approaches for estimation of apparent activation energy are useful to determine utility of these materials in various applications.