Zener Tunneling Breakdown in Phase-Change Materials Revealed by Intense Terahertz Pulses

Yasuyuki Sanari; Takehiro Tachizaki; Yuta Saito; Kotaro Makino; Paul Fons; Alexander V. Kolobov; Junji Tominaga; Koichiro Tanaka; Yoshihiko Kanemitsu; Muneaki Hase; Hideki Hirori

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.165702

Zener Tunneling Breakdown in Phase-Change Materials Revealed by Intense Terahertz Pulses

Yasuyuki Sanari, Takehiro Tachizaki, Yuta Saito, Kotaro Makino, Paul Fons, Alexander V. Kolobov, Junji Tominaga, Koichiro Tanaka, Yoshihiko Kanemitsu, Muneaki Hase, Hideki Hirori

Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We have systematically investigated the spatial and temporal dynamics of crystallization that occur in the phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 upon irradiation with an intense terahertz (THz) pulse. THz-pump-optical-probe spectroscopy revealed that Zener tunneling induces a nonlinear increase in the conductivity of the crystalline phase. This fact causes the large enhancement of electric field associated with the THz pulses only at the edge of the crystallized area. The electric field concentrating in this area causes a temperature increase via Joule heating, which in turn leads to nanometer-scale crystal growth parallel to the field and the formation of filamentary conductive domains across the sample.

Original language	English
Article number	165702
Journal	Physical review letters
Volume	121
Issue number	16
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.165702
Publication status	Published - 2018 Oct 19

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy(all)

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Sanari, Y., Tachizaki, T., Saito, Y., Makino, K., Fons, P., Kolobov, A. V., Tominaga, J., Tanaka, K., Kanemitsu, Y., Hase, M., & Hirori, H. (2018). Zener Tunneling Breakdown in Phase-Change Materials Revealed by Intense Terahertz Pulses. Physical review letters, 121(16), [165702]. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.165702

Zener Tunneling Breakdown in Phase-Change Materials Revealed by Intense Terahertz Pulses. / Sanari, Yasuyuki; Tachizaki, Takehiro; Saito, Yuta; Makino, Kotaro; Fons, Paul; Kolobov, Alexander V.; Tominaga, Junji; Tanaka, Koichiro; Kanemitsu, Yoshihiko; Hase, Muneaki; Hirori, Hideki.

In: Physical review letters, Vol. 121, No. 16, 165702, 19.10.2018.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article

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