Extended free‐volume defects in chalcogenide glassy semiconductors induced by high‐energy γ‐irradiation

It was shown that under-coordinated topological defects induced by high-energy γ-irradiation can be a reason for significant changes in positron annihilation lifetime spectra of multicomponent chalcogenide glassy semiconductors within ternary Ge-As(Sb)-S systems. In the case of negatively-charged sulphur and arsenic atoms, the excess of free volume is quite enough to produce additional input in the second defect-related channel of positron trapping, while under-coordinated germanium atoms are practically non-detectable with this technique because of low associated free volume. Despite radiation-induced densification, the average positron lifetime demonstrate both growing and decaying tendencies after γ-irradiation depending on glass composition. (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)