Mafi, Elham Soudi, Afsoon Gu, Yi Electronically Driven Amorphization in Phase-Change In<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> Nanowires We show that the amorphization process in phase-change In<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> nanowires grown by chemical vapor deposition can be driven by electronic effects and does <i>not</i> require the conventional thermal melt-quench process. In particular, using transmission electron microscopy, in situ single-nanowire Raman spectroscopy, scanning Kelvin probe microscopy, and finite-element simulations, we demonstrate that the electronic amorphization can be achieved under optical excitations at temperatures far below the thermal melting point. The mechanism of this electronic amorphization is likely related to the presence of atomic bonds with different strengths in the crystalline phase In<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> and the weakening of the weaker bonds by nonequilibrium electrons. Our findings suggest that In<sub>2</sub>Se<sub>3</sub> is a promising candidate for phase-change memory applications, with potential advantages including energy-efficient memory switching due to the electronic amorphization process and highly stable data storage as a result of a high melting point compared to Ge/Sb–Te alloys. On a more general level, these results indicate the need to take into account the electronic effects in modeling and understanding the phase transition processes in phase-change memories. phase transition processes;amorphization process;chemical vapor deposition;2Se NanowiresWe show;transmission electron microscopy;scanning Kelvin probe microscopy;bond 2016-02-20
    https://acs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Electronically_Driven_Amorphization_in_Phase_Change_In_sub_2_sub_Se_sub_3_sub_Nanowires/2474623
10.1021/jp305696w.s001