Annealing time and temperature dependence for photo-induced crystallization in amorphous GeSe2

Abstract Annealing time and temperature dependence for thermal- and photo-induced crystallization in amorphous GeSe2 was studied by Raman measurement. Amorphous GeSe2 crystallizes to a low temperature form, LT-GeSe2 or a high temperature form, HT-GeSe2. We investigated the growth conditions of crystallization with and without laser irradiation for LT-GeSe2 and HT-GeSe2 from the relation of a time–temperature–transformation (T–T–T) diagram. The activation energy for thermal crystallization from amorphous GeSe2 to LT-GeSe2 is about 4.6 eV, whereas that for photo-induced crystallization is about 2.6 eV.