Light-assisted physical aging in chalcogenide glasses: Dependence on the wavelength of incident photons

Physical aging induced by an exposure of As–Se, As–S, and Ge–Se glasses to the light of different discrete wavelengths is studied using differential scanning calorimetry technique. The value of this effect is compared to the physical aging caused by natural storage in the dark. It is shown that a choice of As or Ge atoms does not influence significantly the spectral dependence of light-assisted physical aging, whereas substitution of Se with S causes drastic changes in the magnitude of the effect. The mechanism of the observed light-induced phenomena is discussed in terms of transient and metastable displacements of network chalcogen atoms.