METALLIC GLASSES AS PHASE-CHANGE MATERIALS

Synopsis

The demands of computer memory storage has been increasing at an alarming rate, mainly due to advances in digital technology and a variety of gadgets requiring high density memory storage.

The traditional magnetic memory is still the leader in this area, but scaling down of the memory devices presents a great challenge. A competing technology based on phase-change materials where the electrical resistance can take high/low values has been demonstrated to be quite promising for some semiconducting materials. However, the problem is the large electric power requirements needed to make the phase changes. This creates an obstacle for scaling down the device size.

Another idea is to use a conducting material, based on metallic glasses, where the phase change is simply the difference between the resistivities between the amorphous and the crystalline phases. Can this approach work? In this presentation, I will show that the idea is reasonable, bur the challenge is in building the memory device.