High-pressure Raman spectroscopy of phase change materials
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, Stanford Institute for Materials and Energy Sciences, Menlo Park, California 94025 (United States)
- I. Physikalisches Institut (IA), RWTH Aachen University, 52056 Aachen (Germany)
We used high-pressure Raman spectroscopy to study the evolution of vibrational frequencies of the phase change materials (PCMs) Ge{sub 2}Sb{sub 2}Te{sub 5}, GeSb{sub 2}Te{sub 4}, and SnSb{sub 2}Te{sub 4}. We found that the critical pressure for triggering amorphization in the PCMs decreases with increasing vacancy concentration, demonstrating that the presence of vacancies, rather than differences in the atomic covalent radii, is crucial for pressure-induced amorphization in PCMs. Compared to the as-deposited amorphous phase, the pressure-induced amorphous phase has a similar vibrational spectrum but requires much lower laser power to transform into the crystalline phase, suggesting different kinetics of crystallization, which may have implications for applications of PCMs in non-volatile data storage.
- OSTI ID:
- 22254103
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 19; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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