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Field Induced Crystal Nucleation in Chalcogenide Phase Change Memory

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2011

Marco Nardone
Affiliation:
mnardone1@verizon.net, University of Toledo, Physics & Astronomy, Toledo, Ohio, United States
Victor G. Karpov
Affiliation:
vkarpov@gmail.com, University of Toledo, Physics & Astronomy, Toledo, Ohio, United States
Mukut Mitra
Affiliation:
mukutkitra@yahoo.com, University of Pennsylvania, Materials Science and Engineering, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Ilya V. Karpov
Affiliation:
ilya.v.karpov@intel.com, Intel, Santa Clara, California, United States
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Abstract

A summary is presented of our theoretical and experimental work over more than two years related to switching in chalcogenide glass phase change memory. As a significant addition to the well known experiments, we have studied switching under considerably lower voltages and elevated temperatures, as well as the statistics of switching events and relaxation oscillations. Our analytical theory, based on field induced crystal nucleation, predicts all of our observed features and their dependencies on material parameters.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2009

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