AI Article Synopsis
- The phase-change material germanium telluride (GeTe) is important for technology but has unresolved questions about its bonding, especially in its amorphous form.
- A new bond-analysis tool called the "bond-weighted distribution function" (BWDF) has been introduced to study these bonding mechanisms in amorphous GeTe.
- Results indicate that homopolar Ge-Ge bonds play a unique role by stabilizing local structures without contributing to the overall stability, impacting the material's performance in applications involving resistance changes.
Article Abstract
Despite its simple chemical constitution and unparalleled technological importance, the phase-change material germanium telluride (GeTe) still poses fundamental questions. In particular, the bonding mechanisms in amorphous GeTe have remained elusive to date, owing to the lack of suitable bond-analysis tools. Herein, we introduce a bonding indicator for amorphous structures, dubbed "bond-weighted distribution function" (BWDF), and we apply this method to amorphous GeTe. The results underline a peculiar role of homopolar Ge-Ge bonds, which locally stabilize tetrahedral fragments but not the global network. This atom-resolved (i.e., chemical) perspective has implications for the stability of amorphous "zero bits" and thus for the technologically relevant resistance-drift phenomenon.
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| http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201404223 | DOI Listing |
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