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Optical memory

Phase-change memory

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Integrated nano-optical memories may help overcome the limitations of communication speeds and energy costs in electronic chips. Now, using nanoscale phase-change materials researchers have realized the first multi-bit all-optical non-volatile memories with a very small footprint.

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Figure 1: Phase change between crystalline and amorphous states in a GST cell, corresponding to low and high transmission levels.
Figure 2: Eight-level operation of a single-cell device.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Eiichi Kuramochi and Masaya Notomi are at the Nanophotonics Center and NTT Basic Research Laboratories, NTT Corporation, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243-0198, Japan,

    Eiichi Kuramochi & Masaya Notomi

Authors
  1. Eiichi Kuramochi
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  2. Masaya Notomi
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Correspondence to Eiichi Kuramochi or Masaya Notomi.

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Kuramochi, E., Notomi, M. Phase-change memory. Nature Photon 9, 712–714 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.212

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