Abstract
The present study concerns the impact of adding Mn content on the electrical, thermoelectrical, and mechanical properties of ternary Ge-Se-Mn glassy materials. The activation energies for the electric (Delta E-dc) and thermoelectric (Delta E-th) conduction of different compositions of (Ge1Se2)(100-x) Mn-x(0.0 <= x <= 12.0 at.%.) thin films were estimated. The elastic moduli such as longitudinal (L-), shearing (S-), young (Y-), and bulk (K-) modulus as well as microhardness (H), Poisson's ratio (sigma), and Debye temperature -(T-D) for the studied glasses were investigated. The obtained values of Delta E-dc, Delta E-th, and the molar volume were decreasing, whereas the glass density, L, S, Y, K, H, sigma, and TD, were increasing with increasing Mn content. The values of K were correlated with the electronegativity (Delta chi) and the bandgap (E-g = 2 (Delta E-dc)). E-g decreased from 1.737 to 1.421 eV with increasing the Mn content from 0 to 12 at. %. The estimated values of K based on Delta chi and/or Eg are found in excellent agreement with that experimentally determined. The obtained results were discussed in terms of the electronic polarizability.