Understanding Chalcogenides

Dan Hewak Optoelectronics Research Centre

What is a Chalcogenide?

From Greek sulphur-loving for elements that frequently bond to sulphur

1990’s

2000

Outline

• Why more chalcogenide research? • Twenty five years of glass melting at Southampton

• They aren’t very stable are they?

• Current capabilities

• What’s next?

Chemistry

BiTe Thermoelectric Device Jin Yao, Southampton

Why more chalcogenide research?

“… In photonics, you never have the

material you want!”

Professor Sir David Payne ORC Director

“…there are eight technologies I challenge the Britain to lead the world in [these include]

Advanced Materials”

The Rt Hon George Osborne MP

Chemistry

“… Big Science Projects need long lead times…

Transparent in the infrared, far beyond transmission of traditional glass

Highly photosensitive, wide and varying response to light stimuli

Easily doped with rare earth elements, transition metals, Nobel metals

Glass is semiconducting, conducts electricity, even metallic in nature

Contender for beyond CMOS electronics, established memory material

Why more Research? Our Partners Say…

Manufacturing challenges remain, eg. glass purity, fibre drawing

Need for improved compositions, eg. thermal, mechanical, corrosion

No UK suppliers, no opportunity for material development

There are Research Opportunities!

Chalcogenides: Why are they Interesting?

Chemistry

25 Years of Chalcogenides Glass Melting

1990’s – Glass melting / understanding stability

July 1991 - First ever chalcogenide melt (Ga:La:S)

Nov 1993 - Abandon sealed ampoule melting

April 1994 – Allan Bruce, Ga:La:S impossible to draw fibre

Nov 1995 – ORC Draws first Ga:La:S fibre

Hewak, D.W., Moore, R.C., Schweizer, T., Wang, J., Samson, B.N., Brocklesby, W.S., Payne, D.N. and Tarbox, E.J.(1996) Gallium lanthanum sulphide optical fibre for active and passive applications. In, 10th International Symposium on Non-Oxide Glasses, Corning, US, 19 - 22 Jun 1996.

22 June 2004

Polished Ga:La:S placed in 250 ml deionized water, container sealed

11 February 2015

Sample removed and characterized

They aren’t very stable are they?

See Poster Chalcogenide Glass Corrosion Studies Emma Ansell

Glass Optimization

10:90 50:50 90:10

(The Hard Way!)

High Throughput Material Discovery Brian Hayden Jaffar Saleh Subaie

Glass Optimization (The Efficient Way!)

Paul Bastock, Chris Craig

Transmission Loss ORC Historic Results (1995 – 2005)

~1.5 dB/m

~8 dB/m

Best reproducible fibre attenuation plot for Ga:La:S fibre

Practical fibre still not readily available!

Commercially or in the Research Lab

Marco Petrovich

Chemistry

25 Years of Chalcogenides Glass Melting 2000’s – Beyond optical fibre, expanding applications

25 Years of Chalcogenides Glass Melting

Kevin Huang

Greg Elliott

Ga:La:S thin film between gold electrodes

Glass Substrate Rob Simpson

Kevin MacDonald

Glovebox

Furnace Enclosure

2010 onwards Improved Glass Melt Facility

Ed Weatherby/Khouler Khan/Chris Craig

Gas Filtration, Purification and NI Control

Gas Inlet

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Argon line – Conversion Rig

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H2S line Nitrogen Purge

Daily Monitoring of Gas Purity

Sample: LD1592

Sample: LD1625

Current Glass Purity

oxide impurities

Further into the Infrared

CVD… an enabling technology

• Graphene deposition now routine

• Process optimization underway

• Solar, thermoelectric devices

• 2D materials gathering momentum

Next Generation Devices

APCVD grown MoS2

CVD grown SnS2 on Si substrate

Introducing Stanene

See Poster, Kevin Huang, Nikos Aspiotis, Ghada Alzaidy

Chemistry

25 Years of Chalcogenides Glass Melting 1990’s – Glass melting Understanding stability

2000’s – Beyond optical fibre, expanding applications

25 Years of Chalcogenides Glass Melting

2010’s – Collaborations

Behrad Gholipour

Our Aims re:

• To discover new and optimize existing compositions within this glass family

• To expand existing & develop new links to UK industry & help them exploit chalcogenide materials

• With our partners, to develop device demonstrators in key application areas

• To partner with UK academia nationwide, beyond the partners within this collaboration to explore emerging applications of chalcogenides

• Let’s Talk!

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•

… Big Science Projects need long lead times

ChAMP – Chalcogenide Advanced Manufacturing

Partnership Conference (2015 - 2020)

Current Industrial Partners

Aim: To lead the world in chalcogenide glass manufacture and provide a solid capability to allow UK industry to exploit these highly functional materials

Your Name Here

With thanks to:

Kevin Huang

Khouler Khan

Nikos Aspiotis

Ghadah Alzaidy

Feras Al-Saad

Jonathan Maddock

Vincent Leonard

Kenton Knight

Emma Ansell

Cui Long

Stanley T.C. Ho

Chris Dean

Chemistry Behrad Gholipour

Dom Brady

Greg Elliott

Idris Kabalici

Mark Hughes

Marco Petrovich

Arshad Mairaj

Rob Simpson

Tom Catherall

Thorsten Schweizer

Li Shufeng

Jin Yao