Understanding the importance of the temperature dependence of viscosity on the crystallization dynamics in the Ge2Sb2Te5 phase-change material

The crystallization dynamics in the phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 is modelled using the more detailed Master equation method over a wide range of heating rates commensurate with published ultrafast calorimetry experiments. Through the attachment and detachment of monomers, the Master rate equation naturally traces nucleation and growth of crystallites with temperature history to calculate the transient distribution of cluster sizes in the material. Both the attachment and detachment rates in this theory are strong functions of viscosity, and thus, the value of viscosity and its dependence on temperature significantly affect the crystallization process. In this paper, we use the physically realistic Mauro−Yue−Ellison−Gupta−Allan viscosity model in the Master equation approach to study the role of the viscosity model parameters on the crystallization dynamics in Ge2Sb2Te5 under ramped annealing conditions with heating rates up to 4 × 104 K/s. Furthermore, due to the relatively low computational cost of th...