Toward ultimate nonvolatile resistive memories: The mechanism behind ovonic threshold switching revealed

[en] Fifty years after its discovery, the ovonic threshold switching (OTS) phenomenon, a unique nonlinear conductivity behavior observed in some chalcogenide glasses, has been recently the source of a real technological breakthrough in the field of data storage memories. This breakthrough was achieved because of the successful 3D integration of so-called OTS selector devices with innovative phase-change memories, both based on chalcogenide materials. This paves the way for storage class memories as well as neuromorphic circuits. We elucidate the mechanism behind OTS switching by new state-of-the-art materials using electrical, optical, and x-ray absorption experiments, as well as ab initio molecular dynamics simulations. The model explaining the switching mechanism occurring in amorphous OTS materials under electric field involves the metastable formation of newly introduced metavalent bonds. This model opens the way for design of improved OTS materials and for future types of applications such as brain-inspired computing.

Disciplines :

Physics

Author, co-author :

Noé, Pierre

Verdy, Anthonin

d'Acapito, Francesco

Dory, Jean-Baptiste

Bernard, Mathieu

Navarro, Gabriele

Jager, Jean-Baptiste

Gaudin, Jérôme

Raty, Jean-Yves ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de physique > Physique des solides, interfaces et nanostructures

Language :

English

Title :

Toward ultimate nonvolatile resistive memories: The mechanism behind ovonic threshold switching revealed

Publication date :

2020

Journal title :

Science Advances

eISSN :

2375-2548

Publisher :

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Volume :

Issue :

9 eaay2830

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Tags :

Tier-1 supercomputer
CÉCI : Consortium des Équipements de Calcul Intensif

Additional URL :

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/9/eaay2830

Funders :

F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique
FWB - Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles

Available on ORBi :

since 30 June 2020

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