Study of Er-Sb and Er-Te parental alloys used in phase change memory

The erbium (Er)-alloyed Sb2Te3 phase-change material has recently been found to enable fast writing speed and high data retention due to the Er-stabilized precursor and the formation of coordinate bonds between Er and Te. However, the detailed characteristics of binary alloys about Er-Sb-Te system are still missing. In this work, Er-alloyed Sb/Te binary material are investigated. The Er20Sb80 compound we designed allows a ultra-fast writing speed of 0.7 ns in the conventional PCRAM device, and the Er13Te87 also can be switched under 50 ns. The impurity Er improves the ability of forming the amorphous structure of Sb/Te, and this stems from the strong Er-Sb and Er-Te bonds stabilize glassy states. Our study demonstrates the device performance of Er-alloyed Sb/Te binary phase-change material, and the origins of these improved performance are also explained by the microscopic observation and molecular dynamics simulation. (c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This study investigates Er-alloyed Sb/Te binary materials and finds that they exhibit high-speed writing capability. The impurity Er enhances the ability to form amorphous structures in Sb/Te, thereby improving device performance.