Competing covalent and ionic bonding in Ge-Sb-Te phase change materials

Subedi, Alaska; Siegrist, Theo; Singh, David J.; Mukhopadhyay, Saikat; Sun, Jifeng

doi:10.1038/srep25981

Title: Competing covalent and ionic bonding in Ge-Sb-Te phase change materials

Journal Article · Thu May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Scientific Reports

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/srep25981· OSTI ID:1254095

Subedi, Alaska ^[1]; Siegrist, Theo ^[2]; Singh, David J. ^[3]; Mukhopadhyay, Saikat ^[4]; Sun, Jifeng ^[5]

Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Hamburg (Germany)
FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Tallahassee, FL (United States)
Univ. of Missouri, Columbia, MO (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Tallahassee, FL (United States)

Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ and related phase change materials are highly unusual in that they can be readily transformed between amorphous and crystalline states using very fast melt, quench, anneal cycles, although the resulting states are extremely long lived at ambient temperature. These states have remarkably different physical properties including very different optical constants in the visible in strong contrast to common glass formers such as silicates or phosphates. This behavior has been described in terms of resonant bonding, but puzzles remain, particularly regarding different physical properties of crystalline and amorphous phases. Here we show that there is a strong competition between ionic and covalent bonding in cubic phase providing a link between the chemical basis of phase change memory property and origins of giant responses of piezoelectric materials (PbTiO₃, BiFeO₃). This has important consequences for dynamical behavior in particular leading to a simultaneous hardening of acoustic modes and softening of high frequency optic modes in crystalline phase relative to amorphous. As a result, this different bonding in amorphous and crystalline phases provides a direct explanation for different physical properties and understanding of the combination of long time stability and rapid switching and may be useful in finding new phase change compositions with superior properties.

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Research Organization:: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Solid-State Solar-Thermal Energy Conversion Center (S3TEC)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-00OR22725; SC0001299; FG02-09ER46577

OSTI ID:: 1254095

Journal Information:: Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, Issue C; ISSN 2045-2322

Publisher:: Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 31 works

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