Unraveling the Crystallization Kinetics of Supercooled Liquid GeTe by Ultrafast Calorimetry

Crystallization kinetics of phase change materials (PCMs) at high temperatures is of key importance for the extreme speed of data writing and erasing. In this work, the crystallization behavior of one of the typical PCMs, GeTe, has been studied using ultrafast differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) at high heating rates up to 4 × 10 4 K s –1 . A strong non-Arrhenius temperature-dependent viscosity has been observed. We considered two viscosity models for estimating the crystal growth kinetics coefficient ( U kin ). The results showed that the MYEGA model was more suitable to describe the temperature-dependent viscosity and the crystal growth kinetics for supercooled liquid GeTe. The glass transition temperature ( T g ) and fragility m were estimated to be 432.1 K and 130.7, respectively. The temperature-dependent crystal growth rates, which were extrapolated by the MYEGA model, were in line with the experimental results that were measured by in situ transmission electron microscopy at a given temperature. The crystal growth rate reached a maximum of 3.5 m s –1 at 790 K. These results based on ultrafast DSC with the MYEGA model offer a revelation for crystallization kinetics of supercooled liquid GeTe.