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Electrochemical and Solid State Letters, Vol.12, No.4, H155-H159, 2009
Electric-Field-Induced Mass Movement of Ge2Sb2Te5 in Bottleneck Geometry Line Structures
We report an electric-field-induced directional mass movement of Ge2Sb2Te5 in bottleneck geometry. Under high-electric-stress circumstances (>10(6) A cm(-2)), a mass of Ge2Sb2Te5 tends to move toward the cathode (-) by the remaining mass depletion at the anode (+). The high electric stress induces an asymmetric compositional separation such that Sb is distributed toward the cathode (-) whereas Te is distributed toward the anode (+). Ionicity in Ge2Sb2Te5 at high temperature and high electric stress can be one of the origins of the asymmetric behavior. The electric-field-induced mass movement may provide insight on the device reliability of phase-change random access memory.
Keywords:amorphous semiconductors;anodes;antimony compounds;cathodes;crystallisation;electromigration;germanium compounds;high-temperature effects;phase change materials;random-access storage;reliability;solid-state phase transformations