Abstract
The present work deals with the study of photo-induced crystallization on thermally evaporated Ga
15Se
81Ag
4 chalcogenide thin films. It has been achieved by shining white light using 1500
W tungsten lamp. The ambient temperature during illumination process was controlled and kept at 75
°C, which is in between the glass transition and crystallization temperature of Ga
15Se
81Ag
4 glasses. The exposure time was experimentally established for different illumination times from 0 to 120
min. After various exposure times, thin films were characterized by XRD and SEM. The dc conductivities and activation energies of these thin films were measured in temperature range of 303–403
K. It is found that the activation energy in Ga
15Se
81Ag
4 chalcogenide thin films decreases with increasing the exposure time whereas the dc conductivity increases at each temperature by increasing the illumination time.
► Photo-induced crystallization on Ga
15Se
81Ag
4 chalcogenide thin films. ► It has been achieved by shining white light using 1500
W tungsten lamp. ► Thin films were characterized by XRD and SEM. ► The activation energy decreases with increasing the exposure time. ► It was attributed to the amorphous-crystalline phase transformations.