A review of phase-change display: materials, architectures, driving, and applications

The rapid advancement of next-generation display technologies has driven an increasing demand for devices that simultaneously offer ultrahigh resolution, high refresh rates, and ultralow power consumption. Phase-change materials (PCMs) undergo reversible structural transitions between amorphous and crystalline states, accompanied by pronounced changes in optical constants. This process is inherently nonvolatile and requires no sustaining bias, resulting in near-zero static power consumption. These properties have established PCMs as a highly competitive platform for next-generation display technologies. However, several critical challenges remain, including limited color gamut coverage, insufficient cycling endurance, and difficulties in pixel-level addressing, all of which continue to hinder the practical deployment of PCM-based displays. This review provides a systematic overview of phase-change display technologies, organized along four interconnected dimensions: materials, device architectures, driving schemes, and applications. The microscopic mechanisms and optimization strategies governing switching speed, energy consumption, and cycling stability are first summarized. The optical modulation principles of thin-film interference structures, subwavelength metasurfaces, and multimodal hybrid devices are then reviewed. The multilevel grayscale control strategies of electrothermal and laser-based driving schemes are subsequently compared. Representative applications, including reflective, transmissive, and holographic displays, are also surveyed. This review aims to establish a coherent framework spanning from material fundamentals to device architectures and application development, providing a structured reference for advancing PCM-based displays toward high-performance and practical implementation.