Carrier mobility extraction method in ChGs in the UV light exposure
One of the significant advantages of the ultraviolet (UV) light exposure of chalcogenide glasses (ChGs), photodoping process, is in the application of programmable metallisation cells (PMCs) as a novel non-volatile resistive memory. The memory state of a PMC is dictated by the formation or dissolution of a metallic filament in a ChG film between active metal and inert metal contacts. Owing to relatively rigid covalent bonds mixed with soft van der Waals interconnections, ChGs are able to form acceptor-like traps where electrons are absorbed, and therefore electron mobility decreases compared with crystallised structures. The role of electrons in the interaction with ionic species in ChGs is inevitable. One the other hand, holes are considered as majority carries and their role in interaction with the system is also significant. Therefore, knowing carrier mobility in ChGs is essential. To extract carrier mobilities, for the first time a circuit setup accompanying with time constant extraction method for Ge30Se70 as a ChG material without and with UV light exposure is proposed. Owing to being straightforward, this method can be applied to other ChG materials as well as other light sources or even ionising radiation particles.