Threshold switching in gallium telluride single crystals

Abstract

Gallium telluride single crystals have been grown and cleaved to form thin platelet specimens. Small-area contacts on opposite faces produce threshold switching characteristics when high fields are applied across them, while large-area contact produce memory switching. Detailed measurements of conductivity under DC and pulsed conditions are presented, and the threshold switching is interpreted in terms of a thermal mechanism.

Band structure and optical transitions in atomic layers of hexagonal gallium chalcogenides

“…14 All three materials exhibit the same structure: they are layered compounds of Ga 2 X 2 stoichiometry in which each layer consists of two AA-stacked hexagonal sublayers of gallium atoms sandwiched between two hexagonal sublayers of chalcogen atoms (X), as illustrated in Fig. 1.…”

“…In the bulk form, GaS and GaSe are indirect-gap semiconductors 12 , with the latter being well-known for its nonlinear optical properties 13 , while GaTe is a directgap semiconductor used for electrothermal threshold switching 14 . All three materials exhibit the same structure: they are layered compounds of Ga 2 X 2 stoichiometry in which each layer consists of two AA-stacked hexagonal sublayers of gallium atoms sandwiched between two hexagonal sublayers of chalcogen atoms (X), as illustrated in Fig.…”

Thermoelectric Power of Layered Chalcogenides GaTe Crystals

“…For our best GaTe samples the figure of merit at 300K is Z = 37.27K -1 . One determines this value by using the published value of K [20] which is equal to 10.1WK -1 m -1 . The highest value of Z for GaTe permits the practical application as thermoelectric element.…”

Memory switching in gallium telluride single crystals

“…The variation of a typical off-state characteristic with temperature is shown in figure 3 which is a plot of In Z/V against Ylj2 over the range 145-290 K and is generally of the same form as those of the virgin state where, over a wide range of field and temperature, the graphs are linear. This was interpreted in the previous paper (Milne and Anderson 1973) in terms of a Poole-Frenkel process.…”

“…In a previous paper (Milne and Anderson 1973) monostable (threshold) switching in single crystals of gallium monotelluride was reported. This paper presents the results of a study of memory switching in the same crystals.…”