Journal Article

PreJuSER-14072

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png From local structure to nanosecond recrystallization dynamics in AgInSbTe phase-change materials

Matsunaga, T. ; Akola, J. ; Kohara, S. ; Honma, T. ; Kobayashi, K. ; Ikenaga, E. ; Jones, R. O.FZJ* ; Yamada, N. ; Takata, M. ; Kojima, R.

2011
Nature Publishing Group Basingstoke

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1038/nmat2931

Abstract: Phase-change optical memories are based on the astonishingly rapid nanosecond-scale crystallization of nanosized amorphous 'marks' in a polycrystalline layer. Models of crystallization exist for the commercially used phase-change alloy Ge(2)Sb(2)Te(5) (GST), but not for the equally important class of Sb-Te-based alloys. We have combined X-ray diffraction, extended X-ray absorption fine structure and hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy experiments with density functional simulations to determine the crystalline and amorphous structures of Ag(3.5)In(3.8)Sb(75.0)Te(17.7) (AIST) and how they differ from GST. The structure of amorphous (a-) AIST shows a range of atomic ring sizes, whereas a-GST shows mainly small rings and cavities. The local environment of Sb in both forms of AIST is a distorted 3+3 octahedron. These structures suggest a bond-interchange model, where a sequence of small displacements of Sb atoms accompanied by interchanges of short and long bonds is the origin of the rapid crystallization of a-AIST. It differs profoundly from crystallization in a-GST.

Keyword(s): J

Note: This work was supported by Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology (CREST) 'X-ray pinpoint structural measurement project-Development of the spatial-and time-resolved structural study for nano-materials and devices' and by the Academy of Finland and the Japan Science and Technology Agency through the Strategic Japanese-Finnish Cooperative Program on 'Functional materials'. The synchrotron radiation experiments were approved by the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (proposal Nos 2007A1223, 2008A1409 and 2009A12386), and all calculations were carried out on the Jugene (IBM BlueGene/P) and Juropa (Xeon 5570) computers in the Forschungszentrum Julich with grants from the John von Neumann Institute for Computing and the Forschungszentrum Julich. We thank N. Yasuda and Y. Fukuyama for assistance in the density estimation measurement and H-P. Komsa for providing the initial 648-atom system coordinates for crystalline AIST.

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Quanten-Theorie der Materialien (PGI-1)

Research Program(s):

1. Grundlagen für zukünftige Informationstechnologien (P42)

Appears in the scientific report 2011

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