Picosecond electric-field-induced threshold switching in phase-change materials
| Autor: | Zalden, Peter, Shu, Michael J., Chen, Frank, Wu, Xiaoxi, Zhu, Yi, Wen, Haidan, Johnston, Scott, Shen, Zhi-Xun, Landreman, Patrick, Brongersma, Mark, Fong, Scott W., Wong, H. -S. Philip, Sher, Meng-Ju, Jost, Peter, Kaes, Matthias, Salinga, Martin, von Hoegen, Alexander, Wuttig, Matthias, Lindenberg, Aaron |
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| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 067601 (2016) |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.067601 |
| Popis: | 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. Here, picosecond electric pulses are used to excite amorphous Ag$_4$In$_3$Sb$_{67}$Te$_{26}$. Field-dependent reversible changes in conductivity and pulse-driven crystallization are observed. The present results show that threshold switching can take place within the electric pulse on sub-picosecond time-scales - faster than crystals can nucleate. This supports purely electronic models of threshold switching and reveals potential applications as an ultrafast electronic switch. Comment: 6 pages manuscript with 3 figures and 8 pages supplementary material |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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