Electric-field-induced mass movement of Ge₂Sb₂Te ₅ in bottleneck geometry line structures

We report an electric-field-induced directional mass movement of Ge ₂Sb₂Te₅ in bottleneck geometry. Under high-electric-stress circumstances (> 106 A cm-2), a mass of Ge ₂Sb₂Te₅ tends to move toward the cathode (-) by the remaining mass depletion at the anode (+). The high electric stress induces an asymmetric compositional separation such that Sb is distributed toward the cathode (-) whereas Te is distributed toward the anode (+). Ionicity in Ge ₂Sb₂Te₅ at high temperature and high electric stress can be one of the origins of the asymmetric behavior. The electric-field-induced mass movement may provide insight on the device reliability of phase-change random access memory.