DEEP STATES IN GLASSY CHALCOGENIDES DERIVE FROM THERMODYNAMIC DEFECTS

In typical glassy chalcogenide films xerographic potentials which are controlled by states near midgap have been found to exhibit pronounced hysteresis in response to a step change in temperature. Analysis of the dynamic and temperature-dependent behavior of these potentials establishes that the influential deep states populations N exhibit two key properties of thermodynamic defects namely: N equals N(T) after prolonged annealing at T, and N exhibits temperature-dependent relaxation recovery behavior in response to a temperature step which is clearly associated with physical (i. e. thermostructural) aging.