Integrated Phase-Change Memory Devices using Bi2Te3 Nanowires

摘要

Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and its alloys are considered to be the best avaiable materials for near room-temperature thermoelectric applications. Moreover, because low-dimensional thermoelectric materials are expected to have a higher figure of merit due to quantum confinement effects, Bi2Te3 nanowires have been studied extensively. However, their memory switching behavior has never been studied in Bi2Te3 nanowires. Here, we report for the first time on reversible memory switching effects in Bi2Te3 nanowires fabricated using anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes. We find that Bi2Te3 nanowires show a reversible crystalline-amorphous phase change induced by temperature or electric field, similar to that reported for chalcogenide materials (Ge-Sb-Te alloys, GST), and we demonstrate that Bi2Te3 nanowires show considerable promise as building blocks for phase change random access memory (PRAM).