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Phase change materials: From structures to kinetics

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Abstract

Phase change materials possess a unique combination of properties, which includes a pronounced property contrast between the amorphous and crystalline state, i.e., high electrical and optical contrast. In particular, the latter observation is indicative of a considerable structural difference between the amorphous and crystalline state, which furthermore is characterized by a very high vacancy concentration unknown from common semiconductors. Through the use of ab initio calculations, this work shows how the electric and optical contrast is correlated with structural differences between the crystalline and the amorphous state and how the vacancy concentration controls the optical properties. Furthermore, crystal nucleation rates and crystal growth velocities of various phase change materials have been determined by atomic force microscopy and differential thermal analysis. In particular, the observation of different recrystallization mechanisms upon laser heating of amorphous marks is explained by the relative difference of just three basic parameters among these alloys, namely, the melt-crystalline interfacial energy, the entropy of fusion, and the glass transition temperature.

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Acknowledgments

Financial support by the 6th Framework Program of the European Commission within the CAMELS-Project (Contract No. IST-3-017406) is gratefully acknowledged. Furthermore, we would like to thank R. Dronskowski and M. Gillessen from the Institut für Anorganische Chemie of the RWTH Aachen for fruitful discussions. One of the authors (J.A. Kalb) acknowledges the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and the Deutscher Akademischer Auslandsdienst for financial support.

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Author notes

  1. Wojciech Wełnic

    Present address: European Theoretical Spectroscopy Facility (ETSF), Laboratoire des Solides Irradiés, CNRS-CEA, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France

  2. Johannes A. Kalb

    Present address: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. I. Physikalisches Institut (IA), Rheinisch-Westfâlisch Technische Hochschule (RWTH), Aachen University of Technology, 52056, Aachen, Germany

    Wojciech Wełnic, Johannes A. Kalb, Daniel Wamwangi, Christoph Steimer & Matthias Wuttig

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  1. Wojciech Wełnic
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  2. Johannes A. Kalb
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Correspondence to Wojciech Wełnic.

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Wełnic, W., Kalb, J.A., Wamwangi, D. et al. Phase change materials: From structures to kinetics. Journal of Materials Research 22, 2368–2375 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2007.0301

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