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Thermal and Electrical Conductivity of Ge1Sb4Te7 Chalcogenide Alloy

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Abstract

The unique properties of the Ge1Sb4Te7 alloy as a chalcogenide make it a good candidate for application in phase-change random access memory as well as thermoelectric materials. The thermal and electrical conductivity of the Ge1Sb4Te7 alloy play an important role in both applications. This work aims to determine the thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity of the Ge1Sb4Te7 alloy as a function of temperature and to discuss the thermal conduction mechanism. Thermal conductivity and electrical resistivity were measured from room temperature to 778 K using the hot strip method and the four-terminal method, respectively. The thermal conductivity of the Ge1Sb4Te7 alloy shows an interesting temperature dependence: it decreases up to about 600 K, and then increases with increasing temperature. The electrical resistivity shows a monotonic increase with increasing temperature. Through a discussion of the thermal conductivity results together with electrical resistivity results, it is proposed that electronic thermal conductivity dominates the thermal conductivity, while the bipolar diffusion contributes to the increase in the thermal conductivity at higher temperatures. The resonance bonding existing in this chalcogenide alloy accounts for the low lattice thermal conductivity.

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Acknowledgement

A portion of the present work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 51401090) and the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (grant no. BK20140515).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Material Science and Technology, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, No. 2, Mengxi Road, Zhenjiang City, 212003, Jiangsu Province, China

    Rui Lan

  2. Department of Metallurgy and Ceramics Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Ookayama, Meguro-Ku, Tokyo, 152-8552, Japan

    Rie Endo,  Yoshinao Kobayashi & Masahiro Susa

  3. Photonics Research Institute, National Institutes of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki, 305-8562, Japan

    Masashi Kuwahara

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  1. Rui Lan
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  2. Rie Endo
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  3. Masashi Kuwahara
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  4. Yoshinao Kobayashi
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  5. Masahiro Susa
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Correspondence to Rui Lan.

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Lan, R., Endo, R., Kuwahara, M. et al. Thermal and Electrical Conductivity of Ge1Sb4Te7 Chalcogenide Alloy. J. Electron. Mater. 46, 955–960 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-4982-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-016-4982-7

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