Fast recovery of ion-irradiation-induced defects in Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ thin films at room temperature

Phase-change materials serve a broad field of applications ranging from non-volatile electronic memory to optical data storage by providing reversible, repeatable, and rapid switching between amorphous crystalline states accompanied large changes in the electrical properties. Here, we demonstrate how ion irradiation can be used tailor disorder initially Ge 2 Sb Te 5 (GST) thin films via intentional creation lattice defects. We found that continuous Ar + -ion at room temperature GST causes complete amorphization when exceeding 0.6 (for rock-salt GST) 3 hexagonal displacements per atom ( n dpa ). While transition is caused progressive accumulation defects, several transitions occur upon irradiation. In GST, point defects small defect clusters leads disordering intrinsic vacancy layers (van der Waals gaps) drives metal–insulator transition. Increasing then induces structural amorphization. Furthermore, observed different annealing behavior for GST. The higher threshold compared an increased defect-annealing rate, i.e., resistance against ion-beam-induced disorder. Moreover, recovery on time scale seconds or less temperature.