Electro-optical investigations of Ovonic chalcogenide memory devices

The large differences in electrical conductivity and optical reflectivity between the crystalline and amorphous phases of some chalcogenide alloys are used for storing and reading information in Ovonic memory devices. In this paper we present data for a hybrid chalcogenide device that can be programmed with an electric pulse and read optically or vice versa. Such a device could be used for building an hybrid Ovonic cognitive computer or to speed up the operation of a conventional computer as operations induced electrically in one location could be read and transferred optically to another.