Investigation of thermal and electrical properties of As–Se glasses modified with Cu using DSC and AC impedance spectroscopy

Investigations of thermal properties of CuxAs50Se50 − x chalcogenides were carried out using a differential scanning calorimeter. It was established that copper introduction significantly affects the complexity of structural network. This was indicated by double-stage crystallization process in the compound Cu15As50Se35. Besides α relaxation, all the glasses during heating show β relaxation. The complexity of the network influences the conductivity values and transport properties in a way of higher DC and AC conductivity for the compound with the highest Cu share. Impedance spectra show two semicircles, indicating the existence of two polarization processes in different frequency ranges. The presence of kinetic and as well as diffusion processes in polarization of the samples with x = 10 and 15 at% of Cu strongly affects the unusually high values of the real part of dielectric permittivity in low- and medium-frequency range.