Ilias Zacharias, Theodore Antonakopoulos:

Modelling of Phase Change Media Surface Scanning

The 6th IC-EpsMsO Conference, Athens, Greece, July 2015.

Abstract: In recent years, techniques like scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), have been widely investigated for being applied to various scientific fields. Scanning probe techniques based on micro-electromechanical (MEMS) devices have demonstrated their ability to store data at ultrahigh densities (>Tbit/sq.in). Phase change materials (PCM) have been recently used to write and read data as amorphous or crystalline marks on a sample medium down to the nanometer scale. These applications rely on the reversible phase transition property of PCM between amorphous and crystalline state. Write operation combines electrical, thermal, phase-transition phenomena that determine the final size and shape of the written mark. Reading depends on sensing the huge difference of the electrical conductivity of these two PCM states. Both operations use conductive tips in contact with the medium that move relative to it, during surface scanning. In this paper, we present a theoretical study using computational tools in order to describe and analyze the processes that take place in such a system and unveil the mechanisms that determine the properties of the stored information and readout signal.

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