Far-infrared Near-field Optical Imaging and Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy of Laser-crystallized and amorphized Phase Change Material Ge₃Sb₂Te₆

Chalcogenide phase change materials reversibly switch between non-volatile states with vastly different optical properties, enabling novel active nanophotonic devices. However, a fundamental understanding of their laser-switching behavior is lacking and the resulting local optical properties are unclear at the nanoscale. Here, we combine infrared scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) to investigate four states of laser-switched Ge3Sb2Te6 (as-deposited amorphous, crystallized, reamorphized, and recrystallized) with nanometer lateral resolution. We find SNOM especially sensitive to differences between crystalline and amorphous states, while KPFM has higher sensitivity to changes introduced by melt-quenching. Using illumination from a free-electron laser, we employ that far-infrared (THz) SNOM is more sensitive to free charge carriers compared to mid-infrared SNOM and prove that the local conductivity of crystalline states depends on the switching process. This insight into the local switching of optical properties is essential for developing active nanophotonic devices.