The quest for fast phase change materials

Confocal spectromicroscopy of amorphous and nanocrystalline tungsten oxide films

“…The most frequently used rewritable phase-change recording materials, ternary GeSbTe and quaternary AgInSbTe alloys, belong to the group of semiconductor chalcogenides [1,4,5]. However, other compounds are subject of continuous investigation for optical recording media [4].…”

Phase change memory

“…However, in nucleation-dominated materials, recrystallization initiates both within the interior (nucleation) and from the edge (growth) (Figure 3). The two most important factors governing nucleation and growth kinetics are temperature and local material composition [16][17][18][19][20]. For any given composition, the crystal growth speed may vary dramatically (by more than 10 orders of magnitude) between room temperature and melting temperature [21].…”

The interaction between electron beam and amorphous chalcogenide films

“…Applications in phase-change memories [1,2] and in detectors for medical imaging [3] and electron beam (EB) lithography seem most remarkable. Today the study of interaction between ChG and EB is an actual task; a number papers have been published on EB induced reliefs in stoichiometric [4] and non-stoichiometric [5,6] As-S thin films, experimental results on electron beam induced reliefs in Ge-Se [7], Sb-S [8] and Sb-Se [9] thin films, investigation of recording on Se/As 2 S 3 and Sb/As 2 S 3 nanolayered structures [10].…”