Optical properties of liquid Se-Te alloys

Thin films have been used to determine the optical properties of the liquid-alloy system ${\mathrm{Se}}_{\mathit{x}}$ ${\mathrm{Te}}_{100\mathrm{-}\mathit{x}}$ in the photon energy range of 0.4 to 5.0 eV, and at temperatures from the melting point to 500 °C. These liquids are semiconductors at Se-rich compositions, and undergo a transition to metallic behavior at high Te concentrations. The effects of this transition first appear in the optical data at 80 at. % Te. Possible forms for the electronic band structure in the semiconducting phase of the liquid are derived from the nondirect transition model for optical absorption. The optical properties of liquid Te (metallic phase) are separated into intraband and interband components, modeling the intraband component by Drude behavior, to test previously proposed mechanisms for the semiconductor-metal transition. Our results are consistent with the preservation of two-fold covalent bonding across this transition, and predict a ∼0.4 eV gap between a Fermi level within the valence-band and the conduction-band edge. We have also measured the sub-band-gap absorption coefficient in semiconducting liquids containing 0, 20, and 40 at. % Te, and find that the extent of the exponential absorption edge decreases with increasing Te concentration.