Zener Tunneling Breakdown in Phase-Change Materials Revealed by Intense Terahertz Pulses
Materials Science
2018-10-23 v1 Optics
Abstract
We have systematically investigated the spatial and temporal dynamics of crystallization that occurs in the phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 upon irradiation with an intense THz pulse. THz pump and optical probe spectroscopy revealed that Zener tunneling induces a nonlinear increase in the conductivity of the crystalline phase. This result indicates that the large electric field associated with the THz pulses causes a nonlinear increase only at the edge of the crystallized area. The electric field concentrating in this area causes a temperature increase via Joule heating, which in turn leads to nanometer scale crystal growth parallel to the field and the formation of filamentary conductive domains across the sample.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1810.05308,
title = {Zener Tunneling Breakdown in Phase-Change Materials Revealed by Intense Terahertz Pulses},
author = {Yasuyuki Sanari and Takehiro Tachizaki and Yuta Saito and Kotaro Makino and Paul Fons and Alexander V. Kolobov and Junji Tominaga and Koichiro Tanaka and Yoshihiko Kanemitsu and Muneaki Hase and Hideki Hirori},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.05308},
year = {2018}
}
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