High-pressure resistivity behavior of As–Te–In glasses – the effect of network topological thresholds

Electrical resistivity measurements have been carried out on As–Te–In glasses up to a pressure of 8 GPa using an Opposed Anvil Cell. It is found that the electrical resistivity and conductivity activation energy decrease continuously with pressure and the samples become metallic at pressures in the range 1.5–2.5 GPa. The variation with composition of the normalized electrical resistivity at different pressures suggests the possibility of rigidity percolation and chemical thresholds occurring around the average coordination of left angle bracketrright-pointing angle bracket=2.65 and 2.7 respectively. It is also observed that As–Te–In samples remain amorphous when they undergo metallization at high pressures, which is analogous to the threshold switching exhibited by these samples