Phase-change memory cells based on nanoparticles alloy Ag-Au

Abstract

Phase-change random access memory is an excellent candidate for next-generation non-volatile memory technology. In order to meet the needs of the industry, its capacity must be improved, for which it is necessary to reduce the volume of a unit cell. Proceeding from this, in this work, the possibility of using nanoparticles of the Ag-Au binary alloy as individual phase-change random access memory cells was evaluated by computer simulation. The method of molecular dynamics with a modified tight binding potential was used. For this, an analysis was made of the crystallization processes of these nanoparticles with a diameter of 2,0 to 8,0 nm with different rates of thermal energy removal. It was shown that the addition of gold to the composition makes it possible to solve the problem of the complex reproduction of the amorphous structure, which is characteristic of pure Ag nanoparticles. Due to this, stable switching between the amorphous and crystalline phases can be achieved at a nanocluster diameter of ≥4 nm and ≥6 nm with an Au content in the composition of ≥40% and ≥20%, respectively, which is significantly lower than the cut-off value of 10 nm characteristic of silver nanoparticles.

Keywords

• nanoclusters
• silver
• gold
• crystallization
• structure
• computer simulation
• tight-binding
• pcm cell