Amorphous to Amorphous Insulator-Metal transition in GeSe$_3$:Ag glasses

Abstract

We study an insulator-metal transition in a ternary chalcogenide glass (GeSe$_3$)$_{1-x}$Ag$_x$ for $x$=0.15 and 0.25. The conducting phase of the glass is obtained by using "Gap Sculpting" (Prasai et al, Sci. Rep. 5:15522 (2015)) and it is observed that the metallic and insulating phases have nearly identical DFT energies but have a conductivity contrast of ~10$^8$. The transition from insulator to metal involves growth of an Ag-rich phase accompanied by a depletion of tetrahedrally bonded Ge(Se$_{1/2}$)$_4$ in the host network. The relative fraction of the amorphous Ag$_2$Se phase and GeSe$_2$ phase is shown to be a critical determinant of DC conductivity.