Optical properties of Sn-substituted GeTe phase-change materials under high pressure

The emerging phase change materials (PCMs) have attracted much attention due to their unique properties and applications. However, the optical properties of PCM at high pressures have not been well explored. In this work, the microstructure and optical properties of GeTe and Sn-substituted GeTe at high pressures up to 30 GPa have been systematically investigated. We find that the substitution of small amounts of Sn for Ge combined with the introduction of high pressure can induce an optical contrast of 117% in crystalline GeTe, which is even higher than the highest optical contrast reported so far (90%) caused by amorphous GeTe to crystalline GeTe. The pressure-induced contrast does not originate from any phase transition as previously, but from the combined effect of Peierls distortion elimination and Ge vacancy formation, which leads to an increase in carrier concentration. The relationship between pressure/atomic composition, Peierls distortion/vacancy formation, and optical contrast can be well explained by a combination of experiments and theoretical calculations. Therefore, this study reveals the effect of high pressure on the optical properties of PCMs and provides new ideas for the design of high-optical-contrast PCMs.