Te-Ge-Sn-Au Phase Change Recording Film For Optical Disk

Te-Ge-Sn-Au thin films were studied for phase change type rewritable disk media, in order to obtain the fast crystallization speed and the thermal stability. Films were prepared by co-evaporation method. It was found that through static record/erase measurements the threshold crystallizing pulse duration of Te60Ge4SnllAu25 film was only 1 usec at 2 mW of laser power; that is less than one tenth compared with that of Te80Ge5Sn15 film, while the threshold amorphizing laser power of them were almost the same, 6 mW at 0.2 psec of pulse duration regardless of Au concentration. Its crystallizaton temperature of about 130°C was enough to maintain the good thermal stability. Through DSC, X-ray and electron diffraction studies, the first appeared crystalline state in crystallization process, corresponding to the drastic change in optical property, showed only one phase of metastable simple cubic(SC) structure. It was concluded that the appearance of the SC structure made the crystallization speed higher. The obtained thin film was a candidate for the simultaneously erasable and recordable material.