TY - JOUR
T1 - Chalcogenide Materials Engineering for Phase-Change Memory and Future Electronics Applications
T2 - From Sb–Te to Bi–Te
AU - Saito, Yuta
AU - Mitrofanov, Kirill V.
AU - Makino, Kotaro
AU - Fons, Paul
AU - Kolobov, Alexander V.
AU - Tominaga, Junji
AU - Uesugi, Fumihiko
AU - Takeguchi, Masaki
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (grant no. 18K14306) and JST CREST (grant no. JPMJCR14F1). A part of this work was supported by the NIMS microstructural characterization platform (NMCP) as a program of the “Nanotechnology Platform” of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), Japan. The authors are grateful to Ms. Yoshiko Nakayama (NMCP) for preparing TEM samples.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Wiley-VCH GmbH
PY - 2021/3
Y1 - 2021/3
N2 - Chalcogenide materials play essential roles in modern nonvolatile memory technology in the form of both phase-change memory (PCM) and selector devices. Herein, Bi–Te binary alloys are explored as an alternative candidate for superlattice (SL) or interfacial PCM (iPCM). GeTe/Bi4Te3 (GT/BT) SL exhibits similar structural features to conventional GeTe/Sb2Te3 (GT/ST) SL, such as highly oriented crystal grains and intermixing. Furthermore, preliminary device measurements show that Ge–Bi–Te (GBT) SL switches in a similar manner to conventional Ge–Sb–Te (GST), suggesting that they may be a promising candidate for memory applications. In addition, Bi2Te3/Sb2Te3 (BT/ST) heterostructure films have been successfully fabricated and show clear interface stacking at the atomic level. Although the BT/ST heterostructure is ostensibly a p–n junction, rectifying behavior is not observed in current (I)–voltage (V) measurements due to the existence of a large number of carriers in both layers. Finally, density functional theory (DFT)-based simulations suggest that an ideal BT/ST heterostructure may possess intriguing topological properties that can enable novel functional devices. The Bi–Te binary alloys offer promising potential for optimizing PCM performance as well as for the realization of novel functional electronic devices.
AB - Chalcogenide materials play essential roles in modern nonvolatile memory technology in the form of both phase-change memory (PCM) and selector devices. Herein, Bi–Te binary alloys are explored as an alternative candidate for superlattice (SL) or interfacial PCM (iPCM). GeTe/Bi4Te3 (GT/BT) SL exhibits similar structural features to conventional GeTe/Sb2Te3 (GT/ST) SL, such as highly oriented crystal grains and intermixing. Furthermore, preliminary device measurements show that Ge–Bi–Te (GBT) SL switches in a similar manner to conventional Ge–Sb–Te (GST), suggesting that they may be a promising candidate for memory applications. In addition, Bi2Te3/Sb2Te3 (BT/ST) heterostructure films have been successfully fabricated and show clear interface stacking at the atomic level. Although the BT/ST heterostructure is ostensibly a p–n junction, rectifying behavior is not observed in current (I)–voltage (V) measurements due to the existence of a large number of carriers in both layers. Finally, density functional theory (DFT)-based simulations suggest that an ideal BT/ST heterostructure may possess intriguing topological properties that can enable novel functional devices. The Bi–Te binary alloys offer promising potential for optimizing PCM performance as well as for the realization of novel functional electronic devices.
KW - Bi–Te
KW - phase-change memory
KW - p–n junctions
KW - superlattices
KW - topological insulators
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U2 - 10.1002/pssr.202000414
DO - 10.1002/pssr.202000414
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85092661463
SN - 1862-6254
VL - 15
JO - Physica Status Solidi - Rapid Research Letters
JF - Physica Status Solidi - Rapid Research Letters
IS - 3
M1 - 2000414
ER -