Berlin 2024 – scientific programme

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MM: Fachverband Metall- und Materialphysik

MM 29: Poster II

MM 29.23: Poster

Tuesday, March 19, 2024, 17:00–19:00, Poster B

Altering structure and optical properties of antimony without heat — •Julia Vehndel, Nils Holle, Sebastian Walfort, and Martin Salinga — Universität Münster, Institut für Materialphysik, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster

In recent years phase change materials (PCMs) have attracted a lot of interest as electronic and photonic memory elements because of a high electrical and optical property contrast between crystalline and amorphous states. Switching between the two phases requires energy to allow the rearrangement of the atomic configuration. To this end the PCM is either heated moderately above the glass transition temperature to achieve recrystallization, or melted and rapidly quenched to form the disordered state. These thermal excitations entail significant energy costs in operating PCM-based memory.

In this study, we explore a more energy-efficient utilization of PCMs. We show that it is possible to achieve structural transformations by merely changing the occupation of electronic states in antimony, a single-elemental PCM. Using ab-initio simulations based on density functional theory, the resulting structural changes can be directly related to large alterations in optical properties in the visible and near-infrared region. Our results enable further research to elucidate the intricate coupling between structure and properties in these materials.

Keywords: Phase change materials; Density functional theory; Optical properties; Antimony; Peierls distortion