Understanding and possibly recovering from the failure mechanisms of phase change memories (PCMs) are critical to improving their cycle life. Extensive electrical testing and postfailure electron microscopy analysis have shown that stuck-set failure can be recovered. Here, self-healing of novel confined PCM devices is directly shown by controlling the electromigration of the phase change material at the nanoscale. In contrast to the current mushroom PCM, the confined PCM has a metallic surfactant layer, which enables effective Joule heating to control the phase change material even in the presence of a large void. In situ transmission electron microscope movies show that the voltage polarity controls the direction of electromigration of the phase change material, which can be used to fill nanoscale voids that form during programing. Surprisingly, a single voltage pulse can induce dramatic migration of antimony (Sb) due to high current density in the PCM device. Based on the finding, self-healing of a large void inside a confined PCM device with a metallic liner is demonstrated for the first time.
Epilayers of the previously hypothetical zinc-blende MnTe have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Epitaxial layers (0.5 μm thick) of MnTe were characterized using x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy; optical reflectance measurements indicate a band gap of ∼3.2 eV. A series of strained single quantum well structures was fabricated with zinc-blende MnTe forming the barrier to CdTe quantum well regions; photoluminescence spectra indicate optical transitions corresponding to strong electron and hole confinement.
Interfaces of pseudomorphic (100) ZnSe/GaAs heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy have been studied by transmission electron microscopy. The observation of three different heterostructures suggests the existence of a transition structure at the ZnSe/GaAs interfaces which have formed on As-deficient GaAs surfaces. The transition structure appears as a bright line in dark field images of the 200 reflection, while it becomes a dark line in dark field images of the 400 reflection. These observations are explained by assuming the existence of an interface layer which has a zinc blende type structure having vacancies in one of the face centered cubic sublattices.
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