Abstract: This invention discloses a novel rewritable phase-change recording medium for optical data storage, which is based on the GaSbTe ternary alloy system. The designed compositions reside on the Sb7Te3—GaSb and Sb2Te3—GaSb pseudo-binary tielines, and the claimed region can be expressed by the formula (SbxTe100-x)1-z(GaySb100-y)z, 35?x?80, 40?y?50, 0.05?z?0.9. The crystallized phase of the GaSbTe films is a single phase after laser annealing, and the crystal structure is hexagonal with continuous variation in lattice constants. The lattice parameters, a is from 4.255 ? to 4.313 ? and c is from 11.200 ? to 11.657 ?, corresponding to the c/a ratio 2.60 to 2.73. The crystallization kinetics shows increased crystallization temperature (181 to 327° C.) and activation energy (2.8 to 6.5 eV) with increasing GaSb content.