Alaa M. Abd-Elnaiem

Thermal analysis study for the phase determination and instable to metastable transformation of the Co–13Cu alloy

The differential thermal analysis (DTA) is utilized to determine the phase boundary and phase equilibria of Co–Cu alloy having a miscibility gap. Regions for various phase i.e., spinodal and coherent binodal, peritectic, magnetic and the transformation from the two phases to α phase transformations are distinctly determined for the Co–13 at%Cu alloy. The obtained results might indicate the continuity of the decomposition kinetics at the boundary between instable and the metastable regions but an activation barrier is needed. The activation energy for the magnetic transformation is determined to be 182.2 ± 2.1 kJ mol−1.

Influence of annealing temperature on the structural and optical properties of As30Te70 thin films

Abstract Chalcogenide glasses have attracted much attention largely due to their interesting physical and chemical properties. Though few published articles exist on the As-Te system, little is known about the optical properties of eutectic or near eutectic composition of As-Te system upon heat treatment. Therefore, this paper reports the effects of annealing temperature on the structural and optical parameters of As30Te70 thin films. The bulk and thin films of 150 nm thick As30Te70 chalcogenide glasses were prepared by melt-quenching and thermal evaporation techniques, respectively. The glass transition and crystallization reactions of the bulk samples were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The influence of annealing temperature on the transformation of the crystal structure was studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), while the surface morphology of the annealed samples was examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM). The optical band gap, refractive index and extinction coefficient were also calculated. The DSC scans showed that the melting temperature remains constant at 636.56 K. In addition, other characteristic temperatures such as the glass transition temperature, the onset crystallization temperature, and the crystallization peak temperature increase with increasing the heating rate. The crystalline phases for the as-prepared and annealed films consist of orthorhombic As, hexagonal Te, and monoclinic As2Te3 phases. Furthermore, the average crystallite size, strain, and dislocation density depend on the annealing temperature. The optical absorption results revealed that the investigated films have a direct transition, and their optical energy gap decreases from 1.82 eV to 1.49 eV as the annealing temperature increases up to 433 K. However, the refractive index, extinction coefficient, dielectric constant and the ratio of free carrier concentration to its effective mass, increase with increasing the annealing temperature.

Composition, microstructure, Vickers hardness and activation energies of Co–Cu alloys fabricated by arc melting technique

We have determined the phase transition for the Co-20 and -30 at.% Cu alloys fabricated by arc melting technique, from the binodal to the two phases α + L as well as the peritectic transitions, using differential thermal analysis (DTA). We equally studied the effects of aging treatment, ranging from 3 to 35 h, on the alloy samples using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Vickers hardness (HV). The activation energies of these alloys are equally determined using five established models. Our results show that for aging time up to 15 h, within the spinodal region at 773 K, the hardness value for Co-20 and -30 at.% Cu alloys oscillates reaching a local maximum at the aging time of 8.5 ± 0.5 h. After 20 h of heat treatment, the HV for Co-20 at.% Cu alloy diminishes significantly while that of Co-30 at.% Cu effectively stabilizes at 241 MPa. The activation energies for the peritectic transformation based on Ozawa model are estimated to be 2465 and 2680 kJ mol−1 for Co-20 and -30 at.% Cu, respectively. †On leave for: Al-Jouf University, Skaka-2014, KSA.

Structural and optical characterization of annealed As30Te60Ga10 thin films prepared by thermal evaporation technique

Abstract Effect of annealing temperature on the structural and optical properties of As30Te60Ga10 thin film was studied using various techniques such as differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The DSC analysis revealed that the As30Te60Ga10 glass has a single glass transition and crystallization peak while XRD results confirmed that the as-prepared and annealed films have crystalline nature. The coexistence of the crystalline phases in the investigated films could be attributed to the formation of orthorhombic As, hexagonal Ga7Te10, and monoclinic As2Te3 phases. It was found that the average crystallite size and optical parameters of the studied films depend on the annealing temperature. For example, the optical band gap decreased from 1.54 eV to 1.11 eV as the annealing temperature increased from 300 K to 433 K.

Effect of Sn substitution for Se on dispersive optical constants of amorphous Se–Te–Sn thin films

ABSTRACT Optical constants of vacuum evaporated thin films in the Se90−x Te10Sn x (x = 0, 2.5, 5 and 7.5 at %) system were calculated from reflectance and transmittance data in the wavelength range of 300–2500 nm using Murmann’s equations. The maximum value of refractive index increased and suffered a shift towards the short wavelength as the Sn content increases this behavior can be attributed to increasing the values of cross-linking chains density and decrease tailing. The variations in the real and the imaginary parts of the dielectric constant, the dissipation factor tan(δ), the optical conductivity, the volume, and surface energy loss functions with photon energy have also been reported. The normal dispersion of the refractive index is discussed regarding the single oscillator Wemple-DiDomenico model from which the dispersion parameters were determined. The single oscillator energy, the dispersion energy, the high-frequency dielectric constant, the ratio of free charge carrier concentration to the effective mass, plasma frequency, single oscillator strength and its position are then estimated as a function of alloy composition. It is interesting to note that the increase of Sn content on the parent Se90Te10 is connected to the decreasing covalent nature of the structure. Besides, the presence of such a sharp absorption edge in transmission spectra recommends Se90−x Te10Sn x thin films as a good optical filter material.