Journal Article

FZJ-2019-01055

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Genesis and Effects of Swapping Bilayers in Hexagonal GeSb 2 Te 4

Wang, J.-J. ; Wang, J. ; Du, H.FZJ* ; Lu, L. ; Schmitz, P. C. ; Reindl, J. ; Mio, A. M. ; Jia, C.-L.FZJ* ; Ma, E. ; Mazzarello, R. ; Wuttig, M.FZJ* ; Zhang, W. (Corresponding author)

2018
American Chemical Society Washington, DC

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1021/acs.chemmater.8b01900

Abstract: Disorder plays an essential role in shaping the transport properties of GeSbTe phase-change materials (PCMs) to enable nonvolatile memory technology. Recently, increasing efforts have been undertaken to investigate disorder in the stable hexagonal phase of GeSbTe compounds, focusing on a special type of swapping bilayer defects. This configuration has been claimed to be the key element for a new mechanism for phase-change memory. Here, we report a direct atomic-scale chemical identification of these swapping bilayer defects in hexagonal GeSb2Te4 together with nanoscale atomic modeling and simulations. We identify the intermixing of Sb and Te in the bilayer to be the essential ingredient for the stability of the defects, and elucidate their abundance as due to the small energy cost. The bilayer defects are demonstrated to be ineffective in altering the electron localization nature that is relevant to transport properties of hexagonal GeSb2Te4. Our work paves the way for future studies of layer-switching dynamics in GeSbTe at the atomic and electronic level, which could be important to understand the new switching mechanism relevant to interfacial phase-change memory.

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Physik Nanoskaliger Systeme (ER-C-1)
2. JARA Institut Green IT (PGI-10)
3. JARA - HPC (JARA-HPC)
4. JARA-FIT (JARA-FIT)

Research Program(s):

1. 143 - Controlling Configuration-Based Phenomena (POF3-143) (POF3-143)

Appears in the scientific report 2018

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Database coverage:
; Clarivate Analytics Master Journal List ; Current Contents - Engineering, Computing and Technology ; Current Contents - Physical, Chemical and Earth Sciences ; Ebsco Academic Search ; IF >= 5 ; JCR ; Nationallizenz ; SCOPUS ; Science Citation Index ; Science Citation Index Expanded ; Web of Science Core Collection

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