Regensburg 2025 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten

DS 11: Thermoelectric and Phase Change Materials

DS 11.4: Vortrag

Donnerstag, 20. März 2025, 15:45–16:00, H3

Characterization of Nucleation and Growth Processes in the Phase Change Material GeTe upon Laser-Induced Switching — •Ramon Pfeiffer, Pascal Schröder, Elias Hildebrand, and Matthias Wuttig — I. Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen University, Germany

We have investigated how germanium telluride (GeTe) phase change material behaves during laser-induced switching at a wavelength of 658 nm. Starting with an amorphous GeTe matrix, which we have crystallized using laser pulses, GeTe has been reverted back to an amorphous state before recrystallizing it again. To analyze concomitant changes, we have examined individual crystal grains using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and topographic changes by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Additionally, we have explored larger spot sizes during the second crystallization phase to assess the influence of a crystalline matrix on nucleation and growth dynamics within the material. These experiments revealed distinct nucleation and growth mechanisms that depend on the parameters used for crystallization.

Keywords: GeTe; Phase Change Material; laser-induced switching; amorphization; crystallization