Elucidating the structural, morphological and optical properties of chalcogenide glasses within antimony-tin-selenium ternary system.

Antimony-Selenium-Tin (Sb-Se-Sn) is a ternary chalcogenide have wide range of potential applications, because of their high strength, various crystal lattices, and electrical characteristics. In this work, the melt quenching method was used to synthesize the nanoparticles of Sb14Se86-xSnx (x = 0, 3, 6, 9, 12) chalcogenide glasses. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and the Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of the Sb14Se74Sn12 chalcogenide glasses ascertained the amorphous characteristics. No extra impurity was detected in any chalcogenide, and the presence of only Sb, Se and Sn was detected from the EDS spectra. The decrease in band gap is revealed with the increase of Sn content in the Sb14Se86-xSnx glasses. Lowest band gap was observed in the Sb14Se74Sn12 chalcogenide, attributed to the large crystallite size. The FTIR spectrum of the sample reveals an absorption band roughly between 500 –400 cm-1, attributed to the vibrational modes for Sb–Se, Sn–Se and Sn-Sb bonds. In the chalcogenide glasses, the Sn and Sb 3d state comprises of two peaks, corresponding to doublet state (3d5/2 and 3d3/2), while as Se has only singlet state (3d). In conclusion, in the Sb14Se86-xSnx (x = 12) chalcogenide glass, an increase in photoluminescence intensity and the decrease in band gap makes it potential candiate for the infrared detectors, and the infrared optical fibres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]