Structural characteristics of GeTe-rich GeTe-Sb2Te3 pseudobinary metastable crystals

The (GeTe)(1-gamma)-(Sb2Te3)(gamma) pseudobinary system has, over almost its entire composition range, two kinds of crystalline phase: one is a metastable phase with a NaCl-type structure and the other is a spectrum of stable phases with homologous structures. In the metastable phase, Ge/Sb atoms and intrinsic vacancies occupy the Na sites; on the other hand, Te atoms are located at the Cl sites. These vacancies are produced by following gamma/1+2 gamma to ensure the stoichiometry of the metastable pseudobinary compound. This metastable phase obstinately holds its NaCl-type structure and resists transformation to stable homologous structures, even at high temperatures on the GeTe-rich side of the system. In GeTe (gamma=0), the NaCl-type atomic configuration itself is the stable structure. GeTe has, as is well known, a high-temperature cubic phase and a low-temperature rhombohedral phase. This GeTe and the pseudobinary compounds containing a small quantity of Sb2Te3 have their single-phase regions not on the GeTe-Sb2Te3 tie line but at Ge-poor sides off the line: in other words, the Na sites of these off-stoichiometric compounds have some excess vacancies besides the intrinsic vacancies. As Sb2Te3 is further added to GeTe, however, the structural transformation temperature continuously falls and the single-phase region converges on the tie line as the excess vacancies at the Na site disappear, which change its electrical property from metallic to semiconducting conductivity. The low-temperature rhombohedral phase is present up to near gamma=0.14. The NaCl-type metastable phase becomes unstable with increased Sb2Te3; after subjecting the compound Ge8Sb2Te11 (gamma=0.11) to heat treatment for 15 days at 773 K, a stable homologous structure appeared. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.