Use of Eutectic Effects in the Possible Creation of Phase-Change Memory Cells Based on Ag–Cu Nanoclusters

An attractive trend in the further progress of nanoelectronics is the development of a new generation of non-volatile memory devices, namely electric phase memory or PC-RAM (Phase Change Random Access Memory). However, there are a number of related unsolved problems, such as the stability of the amorphous phase, high power consumption, long information storage time, etc. In order to solve these problems, a new approach has been proposed, which consists in using Ag–Cu binary alloy nanoparticles as PC-RAM cells. To this end, the molecular dynamics method was used to study the processes of structuring these alloy nanoparticles (NPs) with a size of D = 2–10 nm of different compositions when the heat energy removal rate was varied. The stability criteria of the amorphous and crystalline structure were evaluated and conclusions were drawn about the target composition and size of NPs, suitable for the fabrication of phase change memory cells. It has been shown that using binary Ag–Cu alloy NPs, it is possible to reduce the size of a single cell to 6–8 nm and the information recording time to 2.5 ns and, for the first time, based on the eutectic approach, to achieve the stability of the amorphous and crystalline structure at different rates of heat energy removal.