A Novel Approach to Obtain GeSbTe-Based High Speed Crystallizing Materials for Phase Change Optical Recording

Abstract

ABSTRACTA new approach is proposed to obtain fast crystallizing materials based on a conventional GeSbTe alloy for rewritable phase change optical data storage. By means of co-sputtering, Ge1Sb2Te4alloy was mixed with Sn1Bi2Te4alloy so as to form pseudo-binary alloys (Ge1Sb2Te4)1-x(Sn1Bi2Te4)x (x is a mole fraction). From structural and optical analyses of the co- sputtered and annealed alloy films, the formation of stable crystalline single phases was observed along with a Vegard's law behavior, suggesting a homogeneous mixing of the two alloys. By use of a 4 layered disk with (Ge1Sb2Te4)0.85(Sn1Bi2Te4)0.15 recording layer, a preliminary test of writing and erasing was carried out and the results were compared with the case of the disk with Ge1Sb2Te4recording layer. The (Ge1Sb2Te4)0.85(Sn1Bi2Te4)0.15 recording layer was found to yield markedly higher erasibility, especially with increasing disk linear velocity.