Nanoscale phase change on Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ thin films induced by optical near fields with photoassisted scanning tunneling microscope

A scanning probe microscope coupled with either femtosecond laser pulses or terahertz pulses holds great promise not only for observing ultrafast phenomena but also for fabricating desirable structures at the nanoscale. In this study, we demonstrate that a few-nanometer-scale phase change can be non-thermally stored on the Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ surface by a laser-driven scanning tunneling microscope (STM). An atomically flat Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ surface was irradiated with the optical near-field generated by introducing femtosecond laser pulses to the STM tip-sample junction. The STM topographic images showed that few-nanometer-scale mounds appeared after irradiation. In addition, tunneling conductance spectra showed that the bandgap increased by 0.2 eV in the area of 5 × 5 nm². These indicate that the nanoscale crystal-to-amorphous phase change was induced by the STM-tip-induced near field. Our approach presented here offers an unprecedented increase in the recording density of optical storage devices and is, therefore, expected to facilitate the development of next-generation information technology.