Liquid-Phase Synthesis of Uniform Cube-Shaped GeTe Microcrystals

Many Ge-based chalcogenide alloys, including GeTe, exhibit a reversible amorphous-to-crystalline phase change that is the basis for a wide range of current and next-generation technologies. Solution routes are attractive alternative strategies for synthesizing these materials, because they have the potential to impart morphology control on the crystallites and permit liquid-based processing of films and patterned structures. This paper describes a liquid-phase route to crystalline rhombohedral GeTe crystallites with cube-shaped morphologies and edge lengths of 1.0 ± 0.2 μm. The microcrystallites can be deposited onto planar substrates to produce highly textured (002) oriented films. During TEM imaging, the particles undergo electron beam induced fragmentation and, in some cases, partial amorphization. The GeTe crystallites are characterized by XRD, SEM, EDS (including element mapping), DSC, TEM, and electron diffraction.