Reducing the stochasticity of crystal nucleation to enable subnanosecond memory writing

Rao, Feng; Ding, Keyuan; Zhou, Yuxing; Zheng, Yonghui; Xia, Mengjiao; Lv, Shilong; Song, Zhitang; Feng, Songlin; Ronneberger, Ider; Mazzarello, Riccardo; Zhang, Wei; Ma, Evan

doi:10.1126/science.aao3212

Title: Reducing the stochasticity of crystal nucleation to enable subnanosecond memory writing

Journal Article · Thu Nov 09 00:00:00 EST 2017 · Science

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao3212· OSTI ID:1537291

;

; Xia, Mengjiao; Lv, Shilong;

;

; Ronneberger, Ider;

;

; Ma, Evan

Operation speed is a key challenge in phase-change random-access memory (PCRAM) technology, especially for achieving subnanosecond high-speed cache memory. Commercialized PCRAM products are limited by the tens of nanoseconds writing speed, originating from the stochastic crystal nucleation during the crystallization of amorphous germanium antimony telluride(Ge₂Sb₂Te₅). Here, we demonstrate an alloying strategy to speed up the crystallization kinetics. The scandium antimony telluride (Sc_0.2Sb₂Te₃) compound that we designed allows a writing speed of only 700 picoseconds without preprogramming in a large conventional PCRAM device. This ultrafast crystallization stems from the reduced stochasticity of nucleation through geometrically matched and robust scandium telluride (ScTe) chemical bonds that stabilize crystal precursors in the amorphous state. Controlling nucleation through alloy design paves the way for the development of cache-type PCRAM technology to boost the working efficiency of computing systems.

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Research Organization:: Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

DOE Contract Number:: FG02-03ER46056

OSTI ID:: 1537291

Journal Information:: Science, Vol. 358, Issue 6369; ISSN 0036-8075

Publisher:: AAAS

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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