Mechanism and kinetics of photoinduced anisotropy in chalcogenide glasses

Optical anisotropies, caused by the illumination of chalcogenide glasses with polarized light, are summarized and discussed. In particular, the time and temperature dependencies of the photoinduced dichroism in a-AsSe films are used for an analysis of the effects in terms of macroscopic and microscopic models that have been proposed. A microscopic model, based on the intrinsic charged defects of the chalcogenides, is shown to explain adequately the orientational, kinetic and temperature aspects of the phenomenon. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B,V. All rights reserved.