Physical and chemical aspects of the study of clusters, nanostructures and nanomaterials
Founded at 2009


Kinetics of laser-induced crystallization of GeTe and Ge2Sb2Te5 chalcogenide phase-change material thin films

A.A. Burtsev, A.V. Kiselev, V.A. Mikhalevsky, V.V. Ionin, A.A. Nevzorov, N.N. Eliseev, A.A. Lotin

National Research Centre «Kurchatov Institute»

DOI: 10.26456/pcascnn/2024.16.603

Original article

Abstract: The paper presents the results of theoretical analysis of crystallization of GeTe and Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films under the influence of pulse laser radiation. The phase transformations and the fraction of the crystalline phase was estimated on basis of the change of the probe optical reflection coefficient from the film sample surface. The formalism based on the Kolmogorov-Johnson-Mehl-Avrami theory was used to evaluate the kinetic behaviors of the phase transformation under the action of laser radiation. On the basis of experimental data of reflection changes during crystallization process of the researched materials, graphs were plotted and Avrami constants were determined. It is shown that GeTe exhibits a single step crystallization process associated with a high rate of nucleation and crystallite growth in all directions. The Ge2Sb2Te5 alloy is characterized by a two-step crystallization process with a change in the Avrami constant due to the influence of many factors such as the film geometry, sputtering characteristics, etc. Such type of crystallization is explained by the predominance of the high-stochastic nucleation.

Keywords: laser-induced crystallization, phase transitions, chalcogenides, phase-change materials, thin films, kinetics

  • Anton A. Burtsev – Researcher, National Research Centre «Kurchatov Institute»
  • Alexey V. Kiselev – Researcher, National Research Centre «Kurchatov Institute»
  • Vladimir A. Mikhalevsky – Researcher, National Research Centre «Kurchatov Institute»
  • Vitaly V. Ionin – Researcher, National Research Centre «Kurchatov Institute»
  • Alexey A. Nevzorov – Ph. D., Researcher, National Research Centre «Kurchatov Institute»
  • Nikolay N. Eliseev – Junior Researcher, National Research Centre «Kurchatov Institute»
  • Andrey A. Lotin – Ph. D., Deputy Head of the branch «ILIT-Shatura» of Crystallography and Photonics Complex, National Research Centre «Kurchatov Institute»

Reference:

Burtsev, A.A. Kinetics of laser-induced crystallization of GeTe and Ge2Sb2Te5 chalcogenide phase-change material thin films / A.A. Burtsev, A.V. Kiselev, V.A. Mikhalevsky, V.V. Ionin, A.A. Nevzorov, N.N. Eliseev, A.A. Lotin // Physical and chemical aspects of the study of clusters, nanostructures and nanomaterials. — 2024. — I. 16. — P. 603-611. DOI: 10.26456/pcascnn/2024.16.603. (In Russian).

Full article (in Russian): download PDF file

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