Laser-induced metastable phase in crystalline phase-change films by confocal Raman spectrometer.

Understanding crystallization process in phase-change materials is very important for data storage application. Especially, accurately controlling the metastable phase transition as well as characterizing its structure evolution is still under investigation. In this study, phase transformations have occurs from amorphous to crystalline phases when the phase-change films were irradiated continuously by the 785 nm laser irradiation.

Suppression for an intermediate phase in ZnSb films by NiO-doping.

The structural evolution and phase-change kinetics of NiO-doped ZnSb films are investigated. NiO-doped ZnSb films exhibit a single-step crystallization process, which is different from that of undoped ZnSb. NiO-doped ZnSb can directly crystallize into a stable ZnSb phase at temperatures greater than 320 °C with suppression of a metastable ZnSb phase.

Controllable crystal growth and fast reversible crystallization-to-amorphization in SbTe-TiO films.

The structure evolution and crystallization processes of SbTe-TiO films have been investigated. The SbTe-rich nanocrystals, surrounded by TiO amorphous phases, are observed in the annealed SbTe-TiO composite films. The segregated domains exhibit obvious chalcogenide/TiO interfaces, which elevate crystallization temperature, impede the grain growth and increase crystalline resistance.