One order of magnitude faster phase change at reduced power in Ti-Sb-Te

Abstract

To date, slow Set operation speed and high Reset operation power remain to be important limitations for substituting dynamic random access memory by phase change memory. Here, we demonstrate phase change memory cell based on Ti 0.4 Sb2 Te3 alloy, showing one order of magnitude faster Set operation speed and as low as one-fifth Reset operation power, compared with Ge2 Sb2 Te5-based phase change memory cell at the same size. The enhancements may be rooted in the common presence of titanium-centred octahedral motifs in both amorphous and crystalline Ti0.4 Sb2 Te3 phases. The essentially unchanged local structures around the titanium atoms may be responsible for the significantly improved performance, as these structures could act as nucleation centres to facilitate a swift, low-energy order-disorder transition for the rest of the Sb-centred octahedrons. Our study may provide an alternative to the development of high-speed, low-power dynamic random access memory-like phase change memory technology. © 2014 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.