Unconventional phase transition of phase-change-memory materials for optical data storage

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/ab3cc3

Abstract Recent years, optically controlled phase-change memory draws intensive attention owing to some advanced applications including integrated all-optical nonvolatile memory, in-memory computing, and neuromorphic computing. The light-induced phase transition is the key for this technology. Traditional understanding on the role of light is the heating effect. Generally, the RESET operation of phase-change memory is believed to be a melt-quenching-amorphization process. However, some recent experimental and theoretical investigations have revealed that ultrafast laser can manipulate the structures of phase-change materials by non-thermal effects and induces unconventional phase transitions including solid-to-solid amorphization and order-to-order phase transitions. Compared with the conventional thermal amorphization, these transitions have potential superiors such as faster speed, better endurance, and low power consumption. This article summarizes some recent progress of experimental observations and theoretical analyses on these unconventional phase transitions. The discussions mainly focus on the physical mechanism at atomic scale to provide guidance to control the phase transitions for optical storage. Outlook on some possible applications of the non-thermal phase transition is also presented to develop new types of devices.

Keywords: light-matter interaction phase-change memory non-thermal phase transition optical data storage

Received: 17 July 2019
Revised: 15 August 2019
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	42.79.Vb	(Optical storage systems, optical disks)
	64.60.-i	(General studies of phase transitions)
	81.30.Hd	(Constant-composition solid-solid phase transformations: polymorphic, massive, and order-disorder)
	63.20.dk	(First-principles theory)

Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61922035 and 11904118).

Corresponding Authors: Xian-Bin Li
E-mail: lixianbin@jlu.edu.cn

Cite this article:

Nian-Ke Chen(陈念科), Xian-Bin Li(李贤斌) Unconventional phase transition of phase-change-memory materials for optical data storage 2019 Chin. Phys. B 28 104202

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