Unveiling the boson peaks in amorphous phase-change materials

The boson peak is a universal phenomenon in amorphous solids. It can be observed as an anomalous contribution to the low-temperature heat capacity over the Debye model. Amorphous phase-change materials (PCMs) such as Ge-Sb-Te are a family of poor glass formers with fast crystallization kinetics, being of interest for phase-change memory applications. So far, whether boson peaks exist in PCMs is unknown and, if they do, their relevance to PCM properties is unclear. Here, we investigate the thermodynamic properties of the pseudo-binary compositions on the tie-line between Ge₁₅Te₈₅and Ge₁₅Sb₈₅from a few Kelvins to the liquidus temperatures. Our results demonstrate the evidence of the pronounced boson peaks in heat capacity below 10 K in the amorphous phase of all compositions. By fitting the data using the Debye model combined with a modification of the Einstein model, we can extract the characteristic parameters of the boson peaks and attribute their origin to the excess vibrational modes of dynamic defects in the amorphous solids. We find that these parameters correlate almost linearly with the Sb-content of the alloys, despite the nonmonotonic behaviors in glass forming abilities and thermal stabilities. In a broader context, we show that the correlations of the characteristic parameters of the boson peaks with<i>T</i>_gand kinetic fragility, vary according to the type of bonding. Specifically, metallic glasses and conventional covalent glasses exhibit distinct patterns of dependence, whereas PCMs manifest characteristics that lie in between. A deeper understanding of the boson peaks in PCMs holds the promise to enable predictions of material properties at higher temperatures based on features observed in low-temperature heat capacity.