Impact of defect occupation on conduction in amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5
Storage concepts employing the resistance of phase-change memory (PRAM) have matured in recent years. Attempts to model the conduction in the amorphous state of phase-change materials dominating the resistance of PRAM devices commonly invoke a connection to the electronic density-of-states (DoS) of...
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Published in | Scientific reports Vol. 6; no. 1; p. 31699 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing Group UK
16.08.2016
Nature Publishing Group |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Storage concepts employing the resistance of phase-change memory (PRAM) have matured in recent years. Attempts to model the conduction in the amorphous state of phase-change materials dominating the resistance of PRAM devices commonly invoke a connection to the electronic density-of-states (DoS) of the active material in form of a “distance between trap states
s
”. Here, we point out that
s
depends on the occupation of defects and hence on temperature. To verify this, we numerically study how the occupation in the DoS of Ge
2
Sb
2
Te
5
is affected by changes of temperature and illumination. Employing a charge-transport model based on the Poole-Frenkel effect, we correlate these changes to the field- and temperature-dependent current-voltage characteristics of lateral devices of amorphous Ge
2
Sb
2
Te
5
, measured in darkness and under illumination. In agreement with our calculations, we find a pronounced temperature-dependence of
s
. As the device-current depends exponentially on the value of
s
, accounting for its temperature-dependence has profound impact on device modeling. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2045-2322 2045-2322 |
DOI: | 10.1038/srep31699 |