A brief review of amorphous semiconductors

Abstract

One ongoing major problem in solid-state physics is to understand the effect of disorder on the properties of materials. Disordered materials often display novel properties as compared to their crystalline counterpart. Many of these properties are useful for various technological applications, such as window glass, solar cells, etc. Disordered or amorphous materials are desirable for application because they are cheaper to manufacture and, therefore, their study is highly significant and it establishes the necessities of academic and industrial applications. It is also very challenging since many of these existing experimental techniques and theoretical formalisms which have been developed for crystals are either inapplicable or require modification. The present paper reports an overview the amorphous semiconductors. The paper starts with the historical growth of amorphous semiconductors and covers all basic perspectives of Chalcogenide glasses (ChGs) that are a renowned example of amorphous semiconductors. © 2023