Mechanical Damping of Silver-Containing Si-As-Chalcogenide Glasses

Mechanical damping measurements were used to study the structural conditions responsible for the increase in thermal stability that has been observed when Ag and Se are substituted simultaneously in Si35As25-xAgxTe40-ySey glasses. Glasses containing Ag exhibited a mechanical damping peak whose magnitude was approximately proportional to the Ag content and which was absent in the more completely cross-linked Si35As25Te40 base glass. This peak shifted to lower temperatures and split into two overlapping peaks with increasing Se content. The splitting of the peak has been tentatively attributed to phase separation which has been postulated to occur at higher Se contents