2019
DOI: 10.1063/1.5095470
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Thermal-gradient-driven elemental segregation in Ge2Sb2Te5 phase change memory cells

Abstract: Thermal gradients have been predicted to play a large role in compositional segregation leading to failure in phase change memories. We have developed a methodology for isolating thermal-gradient driven segregation effects without interference from the electric field. In Ge2Sb2Te5 functional layers, Sb and Te move along the temperature gradient, while Ge segregates in the opposite direction. The direction of segregation is consistent for devices that were repeatedly melted, as well as for devices that were nev… Show more

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Cited by 18 publications
(9 citation statements)
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References 23 publications
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“…Germanium and antimony move in the opposite direction and accumulate in the cathode, as seen in the line profiles. These observations of the polarity dependence of elemental segregation are consistent with those reported previously [3,4]. Further study will uncover the effects of elemental segregation, decouple the effects of electrical and thermal stress, and ultimately contribute to improving PCM reliability.…”
supporting
confidence: 88%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…Germanium and antimony move in the opposite direction and accumulate in the cathode, as seen in the line profiles. These observations of the polarity dependence of elemental segregation are consistent with those reported previously [3,4]. Further study will uncover the effects of elemental segregation, decouple the effects of electrical and thermal stress, and ultimately contribute to improving PCM reliability.…”
supporting
confidence: 88%
“…Understanding the different failure modes in PCM is important for increasing device stability and lifetime. Electric fields and thermal gradients produced by programing pulses induce elemental segregation in PCM [2,3], which can lead to device failure. Here, we use scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) to study elemental segregation in PCM under electrical and thermal stress.…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Since we do not expect the effective charges to change dramatically between the two binary compounds studied here and the ternary GST, our NEGF+DFT results suggest that electromigration, and thermal and stress gradients might have a different share in ionic migration than proposed in ref . Another work aiming at disentangling the different contributions to compositional changes in cycled PCM came recently by Yeoh et al who developed a methodology for isolating thermal-gradient effects without interference from electromigration due to the electric field. These measurements suggest that the Soret coefficients for thermodiffusion are similar in magnitude for Sb and Te atoms as opposed to a ratio of 20 resulting from the modeling of ref .…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 59%
“…At the same time, an increase in the plasticity of glasses would increase not only the resistance of fibers to bending but also the resistance of monolithic glass products to temperature gradients because the resulting mechanical stresses would be able to partially relax. The ability to relax mechanical stresses is important not only for optical fibers but also for film materials used in optical recording of information based on the glass-crystal phase transition. , It is a matter of fact that numerous repeated cycles of crystallization and glass transition of local regions of the films lead to the accumulation of the mechanical stresses and, in the absence of their relaxation, to material fatigue and destruction.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%