Thermodynamic predictions of the formation of chalcogenide glasses

The understanding of glass forming ability requires quantitative information on the stable and metastable phase equilibria of binary and multicomponent systems, particularly as a function of composition and temperature. This paper discusses the success of the use of Gibbs free energy curves for the supercooled liquid relative to the stable crystalline phases to describe glass forming ability. Applications are reported for the systems GeSe2-Se, Sb2Se3-Se and GeSe2-Sb2Se3 for which experimental minimal quenching rates are available. A strongly associated regular solution model for the liquid phase gives a predicted behaviour consistent with experimental data. The method is intended to apply t…