Silver photodiffusion into amorphous Ge chalcogenides

Abstract

Silver photodiffusion into amorphous chalcogenides involves the movement of ions controlled by a UV-visible light illumination, and has potential application to memory devices. Understanding the kinetics of this phenomenon will expand the range of possible applications. Herein, we report the excitation photon energy dependence of the silver photodiffusion kinetics in Ag/amorphous Ge20S80/Si substrate stacks, probed by neutron reflectivity using four light-emitting diodes with different peak wavelengths. Time-dependent changes were clearly observed in all three of the Ag/Ag-doped reaction/chalcogenide host layers, in terms of layer thickness, scattering length density, and roughness. Silver photodiffusion effectively occurred when the excitation photon energy was greater than the optical gap of the chalcogenide host material. Excitation of lone-pair electrons to anti-bonding states at the chalcogenide layer therefore appears to play a crucial role in triggering silver photodiffusion.