Levels of thermal stability in some glassy alloys of the Ge–Sb–Se system by differential scanning calorimetry

The thermal stability and crystallization of alloys in the Ge–Sb–Se system were studied by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). A comparison of various simple quantitative methods to assess the level of stability of the glassy materials in the above-mentioned system is presented. All of these methods are based on characteristic temperatures, obtained by heating of the samples in non-isothermal regime, such as the glass transition temperature, T_g, the temperature at which crystallization begins, T_in, the temperature corresponding to the maximum crystallization rate, T_p, or the melting temperature, T_m. In this work, a parameter K_r(T) is added to the stability criteria. The thermal stability of some ternary compounds of Ge_xSb_0.23?ySe_0.77?x+y type has been evaluated experimentally and correlated with the activation energies of crystallization by this kinetic criterion and compared with those evaluated by other criteria.