Dresden 2011 – scientific programme
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HL: Fachverband Halbleiterphysik
HL 44: Poster Session I
HL 44.70: Poster
Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 18:00–21:00, P3
Disorder Induced Metal-Insulator Transition in Crystalline Ge1Sb2Te4 — •Hanno Volker1, Theo Siegrist1,2, Peter Jost1, Michael Woda1, Philipp Merkelbach1, Carl Schlockermann1, and Matthias Wuttig1 — 11st Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen, 52056 Aachen, Germany — 2Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, FSU, Tallahassee, FL 32310
Localization of charge carriers in crystalline solids has been the subject of numerous investigations over more than half a century. Materials showing a metal to insulator transition (MIT) without a structural change are therefore of great interest. Concepts based on electron correlation (Mott) or disorder (Anderson) are often invoked to explain such an MIT, but a clear distinction between the two mechanisms is difficult.
In this study [1] we report the observation of an MIT in crystalline Ge1Sb2Te4 which is caused by disorder-induced localization in the 3-dimensional solid. A combination of X-ray diffraction experiments as well as optical (FT-IR) and electrical measurements reveals that the observed MIT is an intra-grain effect. The Hall carrier density barely changes during the MIT and is much higher than predicted by the Mott criterion. Therefore, the MIT is not of the Mott type, but driven by disorder.
[1] Siegrist, T. et al. Disorder Induced Localization in Crystalline Phase Change Materials. Accepted for publication in Nature Mater.