Further Meyer–Neldel rule in thermally activated crystallization of chalcogenide glasses

Abstract This paper reports the observation of the Further Meyer–Neldel rule in thermally activated crystallization in Se80−xTe20Mx (M = Ag, Cd, In and Sb); 0 ⩽ x ⩽ 15 chalcogenide glasses. We have investigated Further Meyer–Neldel rule by two different approaches. In the first case, the different sets of Meyer–Neldel pre-factor K00 and Meyer–Neldel energy EMN are obtained by changing the composition (i.e., value of x) of a particular glassy system keeping the third element (i.e., value of M) constant. In the second case, the different sets of Meyer–Neldel pre-factor K00 and Meyer–Neldel rule energy EMN are obtained by changing the third element in a particular glassy system keeping the composition constant. The results are explained using the conception of thermal phonons in thermally activated crystallization analogous to optical phonons in thermally activated electric conduction.