https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/20134103007
Ultrafast optical manipulation of atomic motion in multilayer Ge-Sb-Te phase change materials
1 Institute of Applied Physics, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba 305-8573, Japan
2 Nanoelectronics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba Central 4, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba 305-8562, Japan
Phase change random access memory devices have evolved dramatically with the recent development of superlattice structure of Ge-Sb-Te material (GST-SL) in terms of its low power consumption. The phase change in GST-SL is mainly characterized by the displacement of Ge atoms. Here we examine a new phase change method, that is the manipulation of Ge-Te bonds using linearly-polarized femtosecond near-infrared optical pulses. As a result, we found that the p-polarized pump pulse is more effective in inducing the reversible and irreversible displacement of Ge atoms along [111] direction in the local structure. This structural change would be induced by the anisotropic carrier-phonon interaction along the [111] direction created by the p-polarized pulse.
© Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2013
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 2.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.