Ultralow-fluence single-shot optical crystalline-to-amorphous phase transition in Ge-Sb-Te nanoparticles

Nanoscale. 2018 Sep 13;10(35):16574-16580. doi: 10.1039/c8nr04350g.

Abstract

Here we demonstrate that the 0-dimensional confinement of Ge2Sb2Te5 results in a drastic reduction of the minimum critical fluence required for optical-induced amorphization when compared to the thin-film cases. We show that by using single-shot laser pulses, the investigated nanoparticles display a crystalline-to-amorphous transition, satisfying a mandatory requirement of a bit-memory element. These unprecedented results open a viable route to boost energy efficient phase-change processes.