Pressure-induced metallization in AlAsTe glasses

Electrical resistivity measurements have been undertaken on bulk Al-As-Te glasses at pressures up to 8 GPa and to 80K in a Bridgman anvil setup. The samples have been found to show a continuous decrease in resistivity with increasing pressures. The activation energy of electrical conduction is also found to decrease monotonically, indicating a pressure-induced semiconductor-metal transformation in Al-As-Te glasses. The metallization pressures of Al-As-Te samples increase with increasing Al content. The high-pressure metallic phases of Al-As-Te samples are found to be amorphous. The results show that the high-pressure behaviour of Al-As-Te glasses are closer to that of As-Te glasses than to that of Al-Te glasses.