Thin InSb films—A candidate for multiple recording

Abstract

Thin In46Sb54 films were prepared on glass substrates via flash evaporation. Films of 1000 Å were deposited at room temperature. After 7 min of thermal annealing at 450 °C, an average grain size increased from 20 to 200 nm. Under exposure to Fraunhofer diffracted pulsed Nd-YAG laser beam, the films exhibited different microstructures for different applied laser powers. Five regions were basically identified, i.e., ablation region, regions with grain sizes less than 20 nm, grain sizes ranging from 400 to 1000 nm, grain sizes ranging from 200 to 400 nm, and an unchanged region. The previous five regions were counted from the center of the exposed area outward. The pulse duration was 16 ns. Also, an atomic migration mechanism was proposed which accounts for the power dependent microstructural changes. Transmission electron microscopy was primarily used in characterizing the films. This type of phase transformation could find potential application in the phase change multiple recording.