Photoinduced anisotropy of photoconductivity in chalcogenide amorphous films

Abstract Photoinduced optical anisotropy (dichroism and birefringence) in different chalcogenide amorphous films was revealed and investigated in our previous studies. Here we report new results, which demonstrate that photoinduced optical anisotropy in several amorphous chalcogenide films is accompanied by anisotropy of photoconductivity while both photoinduced effects are optically reversible. Our data allow one to conclude that anisotropy of photoconductivity is due to anisotropy of the mobility of photoexcited charge carriers. We suggest that microanisotropic fragments, such as charged valence–alteration pairs, which are a feature of amorphous chalcogenide films affect not only the light absorption but also the transport of non-equilibrium charge carriers.