"Stickier"-Surface SbTe Templates Enable Fast Memory Switching of Phase Change Material GeSbTe with Growth-Dominated Crystallization.

Ge-Sb-Te (GST)-based phase-change memory (PCM) excels in the switching performance but remains insufficient of the operating speed to replace cache memory (the fastest memory in a computer). In this work, a novel approach using SbTe templates is proposed to boost the crystallization speed of GST by five times faster. This is because such a GST/SbTe heterostructure changes the crystallizing mode of GST from the nucleation-dominated to the faster growth-dominated one, as confirmed by high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, which captures the interface-induced epitaxial growth of GST on SbTe templates in devices.

Structural Transitions in GeSbTe Phase Change Memory Thin Films Induced by Nanosecond UV Optical Pulses.

Ge-Sb-Te-based phase change memory alloys have recently attracted a lot of attention due to their promising applications in the fields of photonics, non-volatile data storage, and neuromorphic computing. Of particular interest is the understanding of the structural changes and underlying mechanisms induced by short optical pulses. This work reports on structural changes induced by single nanosecond UV laser pulses in amorphous and epitaxial GeSbTe (GST) thin films.