Chalcogenides for PCM Applications- An Overview

Chalcogenide is the term used to reference chalcogen’s compounds with elements such as Arsenic, Silver, Copper, Germanium, Indium, Lead etc. Its binary compound is formed from a chalcogen anion with an electropositive element. They have wide usage in different applications due its optical and electrical properties. Some chalcogenides observe thermally forced crystalline amorphous phase changes used for binary encoding. This acts as the ground work of nonvolatile memory devices. Phase change materials (PCM) is present in amorphous phase as well as one or few crystalline phases, and they can be rapidly and repeatedly switched between these phases. The phase change is commonly induced by electrical heating or through optical pulses. The paper gives an overview of the electrical properties of chalcogenides for PCM applications.