Editors: | F. Kongoli, M. Gaune-Escard, J. Dupont, R. Fehrmann, A. Loidl, D. MacFarlane, R. Richert, M. Watanabe, L. Wondraczek, M. Yoshizawa-Fujita, Y. Yue |
Publisher: | Flogen Star OUTREACH |
Publication Year: | 2019 |
Pages: | 177 pages |
ISBN: | 978-1-989820-00-1 |
ISSN: | 2291-1227 (Metals and Materials Processing in a Clean Environment Series) |
The phase-change materials (PCMs) such as Ge-Sb-Te alloys can be reversibly switched between amorphous and crystalline states on a timescale of nanoseconds. The phase switch provides the material basis for next-generation non-volatile phase-change memory devices. I show experimental studies of PCM kinetics spanning over 1000 K in temperature and 16 orders of magnitude in timescales. In the (supercooled) liquid states, this class of materials exhibits a variety of anomalous behaviors in thermodynamics and kinetics, such as heat capacity and density maxima, dynamic crossovers, and a breakdown of the Stokes-Einstein relations. These anomalies are related to a high- to low-density and metal-to-semiconductor liquid-liquid transition hidden below the melting temperature obscured by fast crystallization. I will bring the idea of tuning this transition through adjusting metallicities to attain desired switching kinetics for faster and more reliable phase-change memory applications.