Bond Confinement-Dependent Peierls Distortion in Epitaxially Grown Bismuth Films.

A systematic study of the impact of film thickness on the properties of thin Bi films is presented. To this end, epitaxial films of high quality have been grown on a Si (111) substrate with thicknesses ranging from 1.9 to 29.

Ab Initio Study of Novel Phase-Change Heterostructures.

Neuromorphic devices constitute a novel approach to computing that takes inspiration from the brain to unify the processing and storage units. Memories based on phase-change materials (PCMs) are potential candidates for such devices due to their non-volatility and excellent scalability, however their use is hindered by their conductance variability and temporal drift in resistance. Recently, it has been shown that the utilization of phase-change heterostructures consisting of nanolayers of the SbTe PCM interleaved with a transition-metal dichalcogenide, acting as a confinement material, strongly mitigates these problems.

Pressure-induced reversal of Peierls-like distortions elicits the polyamorphic transition in GeTe and GeSe.

While polymorphism is prevalent in crystalline solids, polyamorphism draws increasing interest in various types of amorphous solids. Recent studies suggested that supercooling of liquid phase-change materials (PCMs) induces Peierls-like distortions in their local structures, underlying their liquid-liquid transitions before vitrification. However, the mechanism of how the vitrified phases undergo a possible polyamorphic transition remains elusive.

Surface effects on the crystallization kinetics of amorphous antimony.

Elemental antimony (Sb) is regarded as a promising candidate to improve the programming consistency and cycling endurance of phase-change memory and neuro-inspired computing devices. Although bulk amorphous Sb crystallizes spontaneously, the stability of the amorphous form can be greatly increased by reducing the thickness of thin films down to several nanometers, either with or without capping layers. Computational and experimental studies have explained the depressed crystallization kinetics caused by capping and interfacial confinement; however, it is unclear why amorphous Sb thin films remain stable even in the absence of capping layers.

Spin Glass Behavior in Amorphous Cr Ge Te Phase-Change Alloy.

The layered crystal structure of Cr Ge Te shows ferromagnetic ordering at the two-dimensional limit, which holds promise for spintronic applications. However, external voltage pulses can trigger amorphization of the material in nanoscale electronic devices, and it is unclear whether the loss of structural ordering leads to a change in magnetic properties. Here, it is demonstrated that Cr Ge Te preserves the spin-polarized nature in the amorphous phase, but undergoes a magnetic transition to a spin glass state below 20 K.