Mass spectrometry and Raman spectroscopy of Silver-Doped
(GeS2)50(Sb2S3)50 of chalcogenide glasses
Fei Huang
PhD Thesis supervisor: Prof. Dr. Josef Havel, DrSc
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kamenice 5/A14, 62500 Brno,
Czech Republic
Chalcogenide glasses are based mostly on sulfur, selenium, tellurium, etc. elements combined with
those from the 14-15th group of the periodic system (germanium, arsenic, antimony, etc.). They are
high–tech materials with strategic importance for phase change memory devices [1], optical fibers [2],
fabrication of solar cells [3, 4], etc.
Analysis of chalcogenide glasses by mass spectrometry is not easy. We can’t use MALDI for
ionization, we have to apply laser desorption ionization or laser ablation of the materials and these are
causing strong fragmentation. The possibilities of combination TOF mass spectrometry and Raman
spectroscopy for the characterization of chalcogenide glasses and their structure elucidation are studied
and evaluated here.
Novelty and motivation of the paper was, for example, using two very different techniques, i.e. nondestructive
Raman spectrometry and destructive LDI TOF MS to follow the structure of chalcogenide
glasses. In our work, the aim was to evaluate if such a combination of very different techniques might
help in the characterization of silver doped chalcogenides glasses studied [5]. Also here the conclusion
was that Raman is detecting basic structural units and mass spectrometry is mostly just showing their
fragments. The ions observed by MS are mostly fragments of these structural units or they can be
products of reactions in plasma plume (which are difficult to identify and/or eliminate).
Concluding, the mass spectrometer can be used to examine the formation of structural entities
(clusters). LDI TOF MS is a powerful and useful tool to elucidate the composition of clusters formed
from chalcogenide glasses determining their stoichiometry. MS is destroying the material, but the
fragments represent structural entities of the studied material. Some structural units were detected by
Raman spectroscopy but not observed by MS and vice versa.
Acknowledgements:
The grants were supported from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic
(grant LM2018103), the European Regional Development Fund-Project “Modernization and upgrade of
the CEMNAT” (No. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_013/0001829), the project NANOMAT (No.
CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/17_048/0007376), and Faculty of Chemical Technology, University Pardubice
“Excellent teams” 2020 project. The financial support from Project No. MUNI/A/1421/2019 for the
Analytical and Physical and Chemical methods for Geological, Biological and Synthetic Materials is
greatly acknowledged.
References:
[1] F. Jiang, et al., Jpn Appl Phy. 30, 97 (1991)
[2] J.R. Gannon. Proc SPIE. 266, 62-68 (1981)
[3] D.E. Carlson., et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 28, 671 (1976)
[4] N. Kushwaha, et al., J Non-Cryst Sol. 351, 3414-3420 (2005)
[5] F. Huang, et al., ACS Omega. 5, 28965–28971 (2020)