Electric field effects in chalcogenides
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MRS Advances © 2018 Materials Research Society DOI: 10.1557/adv.2018.491
Electric field effects in chalcogenides Litian Chew1, Weiling Dong1, Alok Ranjan1, Jitendra K. Behera1, Li Lu1, Robert E Simpson1
1
Singapore University of Technology and Design, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore, 487372
ABSTRACT
The objective of this paper is to demonstrate that Ag readily diffuses into Sb 2S3 and that electric fields can control the diffusion. Ag diffusion influences the crystallization temperature and electrical properties of Sb2S3. We studied the interface between Ag and Sb2S3 using X-ray reflectivity and show that the Ag cations can be controlled by applying an electric field. We believe this effect has technological applications in data storage devices.
INTRODUCTION In this era of technology, data storage requirements are exponentially growing overtime. Typically, semiconductor memories are divided into two classes: volatile and nonvolatile memories. Currently, both memory types are based on complementary metaloxide-semiconductor technology [1]. Volatile memory devices, such as static random-access memory (SRAM) or dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) are very fast in both writing and reading. The non-volatile memories, such as erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) or Flash have the capability to keep the data content even without a constant energy supply [1]. Although non-volatile memories store data without energy, there are many disadvantages. For example, in Flash memory, the content cannot be overwritten. It must be erased before new data can be stored. This erase operation usually takes about one second [2]. Other than that, the number of erase operations for each memory cell is limited to approximately 100 000 erasures [3]. Flash memory cells are known to wear out during use, i.e. the more write/erase cycles they go through, the more wear they suffer [4]. Phase change chalcogenides are an available alternative non-volatile memory technology. Phase change materials possess a large change in optical and electrical properties between their amorphous and crystalline states. Switching between these states is very fast and has been demonstrated using femtosecond, picosecond, and nanosecond electrical or laser pulses [5-7]. The amorphous-crystal transformation is key for data storage technology [8]. Here we study how Ag diffuses into Sb 2S3, which is an underexplored phase change material [9-11]. Herein, we aim to demonstrate that Ag diffuses readily into Sb2S3. It is important to understand the inter-diffusion of Ag/Sb2S3 as it will affect the properties of the crystallization kinetics and optical constants [12,13]. Additionally, we
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study the effect of the electric field and how it can be used to control electrical switching in the
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