Nanosecond Phase‐Transition Dynamics in Elemental Tellurium
Abstract Elemental tellurium, a prototypical one‐dimensional van der Waals material, has recently been found to crystallize quickly from the liquid on a nanosecond timescale, yet the inherent mechanism is not clear. Here, by combining in situ high‐energy synchrotron radiation X‐ray diffraction with ab initio molecular‐dynamics simulation, it is found that trigonal crystalline Te completely melts into the liquid phase at 450 °C, and recrystallizes into the trigonal phase for temperatures lower than 380 °C without the formation of any other phase. This directly confirms the recent proposal of a crystal‐liquid‐crystal phase transition in this material underlying the observed electrical‐switching process. Atomic‐scale, melt‐quench computer simulations show that liquid Te is capable of crystallizing within a time of 25 ps in the vicinity of templating crystallization interfaces. This ultrafast crystallization ability of Te can be understood as being due to delayed Peierls distortions during a quench and therefore a high atomic mobility over a wide range of temperature. This finding opens the way to develop a crystal‐liquid‐crystal, phase‐transition‐based selector switch with an ultrafast switching speed.
Authors
- Stephen R. Elliott (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8202-8482)
- Tamihiro Gotoh (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5659-3624)
- Min Zhu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8057-9742)
- Huanglong Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1777-7807)
- Jiabin Shen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6342-456X)
- Qun Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4096-3392)
- Peng Zhou (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7301-1013)
- Chenyi Shi
- Tieying Yang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4728-7438)
- Yuting Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6331-024X)
- Hai‐Bin Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0645-0187)
- Zhitang Song (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7859-9429)
- Bowen Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6331-1629)
Institutions
- Gunma University (JP)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- Fudan University (CN)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Shanghai Advanced Research Institute (CN)
- Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics (China) (CN)
- Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System
- Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN)
- University of Hong Kong (HK)
- Tsinghua University (CN)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Functional Materials
- Published
- 2024-08-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adfm.202408725
- Citations
- 6
- Primary Topic
- Phase-change materials and chalcogenides
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.70
Funders
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
- Shanghai Rising-Star Program