Progressive amorphization of GeSbTe phase-change material under electron beam irradiation
Source abstract
Abstract
Fast and reversible phase transitions in chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs), in particular, Ge-Sb-Te compounds, are not only of fundamental interests but also make PCMs based random access memory a leading candidate for nonvolatile memory and neuromorphic computing devices. To RESET the memory cell, crystalline Ge-Sb-Te has to undergo phase transitions first to a liquid state and then to an amorphous state, corresponding to an abrupt change in electrical resistance. In this work, we demonstrate a progressive amorphization process in GeSb2Te4 thin films under electron beam irradiation on a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Melting is shown to be completely absent by the in situ TEM experiments. The progressive amorphization process resembles closely the cumulative crystallization process that accompanies a continuous change in electrical resistance. Our work suggests that if displacement forces can be implemented properly, it should be possible to emulate symmetric neuronal dynamics by using PCMs.
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Research context
OpenAlex topics: Phase-change materials and chalcogenides · Chemical and Physical Properties of Materials · Advanced Memory and Neural Computing
SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.
Affiliations
Center for Advancing Materials Performance from the Nanoscale, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University 1 , Xi’an 710049, China
The School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yulin University 2 , Yulin 719000, China
The School of Microelectronics, State Key Laboratory for Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Xi’an Jiaotong University 3 , Xi’an 710049, China
College of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenzhen University 4 , Shenzhen 518060, China
Ernst Ruska-Centre for Microscopy and Spectroscopy with Electrons, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH 5 , 52425 Jülich, Germany
Funding
111 Project 2.0 · Major Provincial Basic Research Program of Guangdong · Science and Technology Foundation of Shenzhen · National Natural Science Foundation of China
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