Phase change memory materials, devices and methods

摘要

A new class of phase change materials has been discovered based on compounds of: Ga; lanthanide; and chalcogenide. This includes compounds of Ga, La, and S (GLS) as well as related compounds in which there is substitution of S with O, Se and/or Te. Moreover, La can be substituted with other lanthanide series elements. It has been demonstrated that this class of materials exhibit low energy switching. For example, the GLS material can provide an optical recording medium with erasability 3-5 dB greater than the erasability of GeSbTe (GST) material which is the standard material for phase change memories.