IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v6y2015i1d10.1038_ncomms9367.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Femtosecond structural transformation of phase-change materials far from equilibrium monitored by coherent phonons

Author

Listed:
  • Muneaki Hase

    (Faculty of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba)

  • Paul Fons

    (Nanoelectronics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology)

  • Kirill Mitrofanov

    (Nanoelectronics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology)

  • Alexander V. Kolobov

    (Nanoelectronics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology)

  • Junji Tominaga

    (Nanoelectronics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology)

Abstract

Multicomponent chalcogenides, such as quasi-binary GeTe–Sb2Te3 alloys, are widely used in optical data storage media in the form of rewritable optical discs. Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) in particular has proven to be one of the best-performing materials, whose reliability allows more than 106 write–erase cycles. Despite these industrial applications, the fundamental kinetics of rapid phase change in GST remain controversial, and active debate continues over the ultimate speed limit. Here we explore ultrafast structural transformation in a photoexcited GST superlattice, where GeTe and Sb2Te3 are spatially separated, using coherent phonon spectroscopy with pump–pump–probe sequences. By analysing the coherent phonon spectra in different time regions, complex structural dynamics upon excitation are observed in the GST superlattice (but not in GST alloys), which can be described as the mixing of Ge sites from two different coordination environments. Our results suggest the possible applicability of GST superlattices for ultrafast switching devices.

Suggested Citation

  • Muneaki Hase & Paul Fons & Kirill Mitrofanov & Alexander V. Kolobov & Junji Tominaga, 2015. "Femtosecond structural transformation of phase-change materials far from equilibrium monitored by coherent phonons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-6, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms9367
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms9367
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9367
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms9367?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aditya Tripathi & Chibuzor Fabian Ugwu & Viktar S. Asadchy & Ihar Faniayeu & Ivan Kravchenko & Shanhui Fan & Yuri Kivshar & Jason Valentine & Sergey S. Kruk, 2024. "Nanoscale optical nonreciprocity with nonlinear metasurfaces," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms9367. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.