High-pressure studies on Ge-Te glasses. Evidence for a critical composition in IV-VI chalcogenide glassy systems

The electrical resistivity of bulk GexTe100-x glasses has been measured as a function of temperature and pressure. Under high pressure, all the glasses were found to undergo sharp discontinuous transitions from glassy semiconductors to crystalline metal. Several of the observed properties such as the transition pressure, conductivity activation energy and pre-exponential factor, exhibit anomalous trends at a composition x = 20. These results suggest that the x = 20 composition in the Ge-Te system should possess salient structural features. A model based on the unusual stability of structural units is proposed for explaining the anomaly at 20 at.% Ge concentration.

High-pressure studies on the critical composition in Ge—As—Te glasses

High-pressure resistivity measurements have been performed on G37.5AsxTe92.5-x (x = 20, 40, 45, 50 and 55) and Ge10AsxTe90-x (x = 15, 20, 35, 40, 45 and 50) glasses. The glasses show reversible metallization behaviour under pressure. The pressure derivative of the logarithm of the resistivity of the glasses is a minimum at glass compositions corresponding to the average coordination number [r] = 2.60. This behaviour is interpreted on the basis of the existence of a critical composition in glasses with a layered structure.

Thermal Management of Electronics Using PCM-Based Heat Sink Subjected to Cyclic Heat Load

Designing a heat sink based on a phase change material (PCM) under cyclic loading is a critical issue. For cyclic operation, it is required that the fraction of the PCM melting during the heating cycle should completely resolidify during the cooling period, so that that thermal storage unit can be operated for an unlimited number of cycles. Accordingly, studies are carried out to find the parameters influencing the behavior of a PCM under cyclic loading. A number of parameters are identified in the process, the most important ones being the duty cycle and heat transfer coefficient (h) for cooling. The required h or the required cooling period for complete resolidification for infinite cyclic operation of a conventional PCM-based heat sink is found to be very high and unrealistic with air cooling from the surface. To overcome this problem, the conventional design is modified where h and the area exposed to heat transfer can be independently controlled. With this arrangement, the enhanced area provided for cooling keeps h within realistic limits. Analytical investigation is carried out to evaluate the thermal performance of this modified PCM-based heat sink in comparison to those with conventional designs. Experiments are also performed on both the conventional and the modified PCM-based heat sinks to validate the new findings.