IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v12y2021i1d10.1038_s41467-021-26696-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Rules of hierarchical melt and coordinate bond to design crystallization in doped phase change materials

Author

Listed:
  • Jin Zhao

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences
    Shanghai Tech University
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Wen-Xiong Song

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Tianjiao Xin

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Zhitang Song

    (Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Abstract

While alloy design has practically shown an efficient strategy to mediate two seemingly conflicted performances of writing speed and data retention in phase-change memory, the detailed kinetic pathway of alloy-tuned crystallization is still unclear. Here, we propose hierarchical melt and coordinate bond strategies to solve them, where the former stabilizes a medium-range crystal-like region and the latter provides a rule to stabilize amorphous. The Er0.52Sb2Te3 compound we designed achieves writing speed of 3.2 ns and ten-year data retention of 161 °C. We provide a direct atomic-level evidence that two neighbor Er atoms stabilize a medium-range crystal-like region, acting as a precursor to accelerate crystallization; meanwhile, the stabilized amorphous originates from the formation of coordinate bonds by sharing lone-pair electrons of chalcogenide atoms with the empty 5d orbitals of Er atoms. The two rules pave the way for the development of storage-class memory with comprehensive performance to achieve next technological node.

Suggested Citation

  • Jin Zhao & Wen-Xiong Song & Tianjiao Xin & Zhitang Song, 2021. "Rules of hierarchical melt and coordinate bond to design crystallization in doped phase change materials," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-9, December.
  • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-26696-9
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26696-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26696-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-021-26696-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. J. Feldmann & N. Youngblood & C. D. Wright & H. Bhaskaran & W. H. P. Pernice, 2019. "All-optical spiking neurosynaptic networks with self-learning capabilities," Nature, Nature, vol. 569(7755), pages 208-214, May.
    2. Paul Z. Hanakata & Jack F. Douglas & Francis W. Starr, 2014. "Interfacial mobility scale determines the scale of collective motion and relaxation rate in polymer films," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, September.
    3. Min Zhu & Mengjiao Xia & Feng Rao & Xianbin Li & Liangcai Wu & Xinglong Ji & Shilong Lv & Zhitang Song & Songlin Feng & Hongbo Sun & Shengbai Zhang, 2014. "One order of magnitude faster phase change at reduced power in Ti-Sb-Te," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-6, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sajjad Abdollahramezani & Omid Hemmatyar & Mohammad Taghinejad & Hossein Taghinejad & Alex Krasnok & Ali A. Eftekhar & Christian Teichrib & Sanchit Deshmukh & Mostafa A. El-Sayed & Eric Pop & Matthias, 2022. "Electrically driven reprogrammable phase-change metasurface reaching 80% efficiency," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Ui Yeon Won & Quoc An Vu & Sung Bum Park & Mi Hyang Park & Van Dam Do & Hyun Jun Park & Heejun Yang & Young Hee Lee & Woo Jong Yu, 2023. "Multi-neuron connection using multi-terminal floating–gate memristor for unsupervised learning," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    3. Dongliang Wang & Yikun Nie & Gaolei Hu & Hon Ki Tsang & Chaoran Huang, 2024. "Ultrafast silicon photonic reservoir computing engine delivering over 200 TOPS," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Reyhane Ahmadi & Amirreza Ahmadnejad & Somayyeh Koohi, 2024. "Free-space optical spiking neural network," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 19(12), pages 1-19, December.
    5. Chenduan Chen & Zhan Yang & Tao Wang & Yalun Wang & Kai Gao & Jiajia Wu & Jun Wang & Jianrong Qiu & Dezhi Tan, 2024. "Ultra-broadband all-optical nonlinear activation function enabled by MoTe2/optical waveguide integrated devices," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    6. X. Steve Yao & Yulong Yang & Xiaosong Ma & Zhongjin Lin & Yuntao Zhu & Wei Ke & Heyun Tan & Xichen Wang & Xinlun Cai, 2025. "On-chip real-time detection of optical frequency variations with ultrahigh resolution using the sine-cosine encoder approach," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-12, December.
    7. Xiaoyun Yuan & Yong Wang & Zhihao Xu & Tiankuang Zhou & Lu Fang, 2023. "Training large-scale optoelectronic neural networks with dual-neuron optical-artificial learning," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, December.
    8. Xiangyan Meng & Guojie Zhang & Nuannuan Shi & Guangyi Li & José Azaña & José Capmany & Jianping Yao & Yichen Shen & Wei Li & Ninghua Zhu & Ming Li, 2023. "Compact optical convolution processing unit based on multimode interference," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    9. Elena Goi & Steffen Schoenhardt & Min Gu, 2022. "Direct retrieval of Zernike-based pupil functions using integrated diffractive deep neural networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-10, December.
    10. José Ruiz-Franco & Andrea Giuntoli, 2025. "Inducing mechanical self-healing in polymer glasses," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-9, December.
    11. Yunping Bai & Yifu Xu & Shifan Chen & Xiaotian Zhu & Shuai Wang & Sirui Huang & Yuhang Song & Yixuan Zheng & Zhihui Liu & Sim Tan & Roberto Morandotti & Sai T. Chu & Brent E. Little & David J. Moss & , 2025. "TOPS-speed complex-valued convolutional accelerator for feature extraction and inference," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    12. Zheshun Xiong & Wen Liang & Meiyue Zhang & Dacheng Mao & Qiangfei Xia & Guangyu Xu, 2025. "Parallelizing analog in-sensor visual processing with arrays of gate-tunable silicon photodetectors," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-13, December.
    13. Steven Becker & Dirk Englund & Birgit Stiller, 2024. "An optoacoustic field-programmable perceptron for recurrent neural networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    14. Hangyuan Cui & Yu Xiao & Yang Yang & Mengjiao Pei & Shuo Ke & Xiao Fang & Lesheng Qiao & Kailu Shi & Haotian Long & Weigao Xu & Pingqiang Cai & Peng Lin & Yi Shi & Qing Wan & Changjin Wan, 2025. "A bioinspired in-materia analog photoelectronic reservoir computing for human action processing," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-11, December.
    15. Jian Yao & Qinan Wang & Yong Zhang & Yu Teng & Jing Li & Pin Zhao & Chun Zhao & Ziyi Hu & Zongjie Shen & Liwei Liu & Dan Tian & Song Qiu & Zhongrui Wang & Lixing Kang & Qingwen Li, 2024. "Ultra-low power carbon nanotube/porphyrin synaptic arrays for persistent photoconductivity and neuromorphic computing," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    16. Chuyu Zhong & Kun Liao & Tianxiang Dai & Maoliang Wei & Hui Ma & Jianghong Wu & Zhibin Zhang & Yuting Ye & Ye Luo & Zequn Chen & Jialing Jian & Chunlei Sun & Bo Tang & Peng Zhang & Ruonan Liu & Junyin, 2023. "Graphene/silicon heterojunction for reconfigurable phase-relevant activation function in coherent optical neural networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-9, December.
    17. Bassem Tossoun & Di Liang & Stanley Cheung & Zhuoran Fang & Xia Sheng & John Paul Strachan & Raymond G. Beausoleil, 2024. "High-speed and energy-efficient non-volatile silicon photonic memory based on heterogeneously integrated memresonator," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-8, December.
    18. Liuting Shan & Qizhen Chen & Rengjian Yu & Changsong Gao & Lujian Liu & Tailiang Guo & Huipeng Chen, 2023. "A sensory memory processing system with multi-wavelength synaptic-polychromatic light emission for multi-modal information recognition," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    19. Gu, Shuangquan & Li, Kun & Zhou, Pei & Li, Nianqiang, 2025. "Parallel optical chaos generation and ultrafast photonic decision-making based on a single quantum dot spin-VCSEL," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 191(C).
    20. Yang Shi & Junyu Ren & Guanyu Chen & Wei Liu & Chuqi Jin & Xiangyu Guo & Yu Yu & Xinliang Zhang, 2022. "Nonlinear germanium-silicon photodiode for activation and monitoring in photonic neuromorphic networks," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-26696-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.