Picosecond Electric-Field-Induced Threshold Switching in Phase-Change Materials.

Many chalcogenide glasses undergo a breakdown in electronic resistance above a critical field strength. Known as threshold switching, this mechanism enables field-induced crystallization in emerging phase-change memory. Purely electronic as well as crystal nucleation assisted models have been employed to explain the electronic breakdown.

Impact of defect occupation on conduction in amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5.

Storage concepts employing the resistance of phase-change memory (PRAM) have matured in recent years. Attempts to model the conduction in the amorphous state of phase-change materials dominating the resistance of PRAM devices commonly invoke a connection to the electronic density-of-states (DoS) of the active material in form of a "distance between trap states s". Here, we point out that s depends on the occupation of defects and hence on temperature.

Relation between bandgap and resistance drift in amorphous phase change materials.

Memory based on phase change materials is currently the most promising candidate for bridging the gap in access time between memory and storage in traditional memory hierarchy. However, multilevel storage is still hindered by the so-called resistance drift commonly related to structural relaxation of the amorphous phase. Here, we present the temporal evolution of infrared spectra measured on amorphous thin films of the three phase change materials Ag4In3Sb67Te26, GeTe and the most popular Ge2Sb2Te5.