TY - JOUR
T1 - Zener Tunneling Breakdown in Phase-Change Materials Revealed by Intense Terahertz Pulses
AU - Sanari, Yasuyuki
AU - Tachizaki, Takehiro
AU - Saito, Yuta
AU - Makino, Kotaro
AU - Fons, Paul
AU - Kolobov, Alexander V.
AU - Tominaga, Junji
AU - Tanaka, Koichiro
AU - Kanemitsu, Yoshihiko
AU - Hase, Muneaki
AU - Hirori, Hideki
N1 - Funding Information:
This study was supported by PRESTO (No. JPMJPR1427) and CREST (No. JPMJCR14F1) Grants from JST and the KAKENHI Grant No. 17H06228 from JSPS.
Funding Information:
This study was supported by PRESTO (No. JPMJPR1427) and CREST (No. JPMJCR14F1) Grants from JST and the KAKENHI Grant No. 17H06228 from JSPS. We are grateful to Naoki Yokoyama and Hiroyuki Akinaga for valuable comments.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 authors. Published by the American Physical Society.
PY - 2018/10/19
Y1 - 2018/10/19
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.165702
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.165702
M3 - Article
C2 - 30387634
AN - SCOPUS:85055208798
VL - 121
JO - Physical Review Letters
JF - Physical Review Letters
SN - 0031-9007
IS - 16
M1 - 165702
ER -