Phase-change mechanism in Ga2Te3 liquid promising for high-temperature memory applications

Phase-change materials (PCM) based on tellurides are widely used for optical storage, non-volatile memory applications and recently for neuromorphic computing. The flagship PCMs are based on germanium tellurides: GeTe, Ge2Sb2Te5, etc. which exhibit low glass transition temperatures Tg in the RESET (amorphous) state and can hardly be used above 380 K. Gallium tellurides have superior melting points and higher Tg and appear to be promising materials for memory applications at elevated temperatures. Fast transformation rate in PCMs at nanosecond scale is directly related to a low viscosity in the liquid state and a strong non-Arrhenius or fragile behavior with decreasing temperature. A detailed study of Ga-Te liquids is simply missing.