%0 Journal Article
%A Jiang, Ting-Ting
%A Wang, Jiang-Jing
%A Lu, Lu
%A Ma, Chuan-Sheng
%A Zhang, Dan-Li
%A Rao, Feng
%A Jia, Chun-Lin
%A Zhang, Wei
%T Progressive amorphization of GeSbTe phase-change material under electron beam irradiation
%J APL materials
%V 7
%N 8
%@ 2166-532X
%C Melville, NY
%I AIP Publ.
%M FZJ-2020-02711
%P 081121 -
%D 2019
%X Fast and reversible phase transitions in chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs), in particular, Ge-Sb-Te compounds, are not only of fundamental interests but also make PCMs based random access memory a leading candidate for nonvolatile memory and neuromorphic computing devices. To RESET the memory cell, crystalline Ge-Sb-Te has to undergo phase transitions first to a liquid state and then to an amorphous state, corresponding to an abrupt change in electrical resistance. In this work, we demonstrate a progressive amorphization process in GeSb2Te4 thin films under electron beam irradiation on a transmission electron microscope (TEM). Melting is shown to be completely absent by the in situ TEM experiments. The progressive amorphization process resembles closely the cumulative crystallization process that accompanies a continuous change in electrical resistance. Our work suggests that if displacement forces can be implemented properly, it should be possible to emulate symmetric neuronal dynamics by using PCMs.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000483883800009
%R 10.1063/1.5102075
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/878242