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Magical Beans: New Nano-Sized Particles Could Provide Mega-Sized Data Storage

By Berkeley Lab News Center
September 20, 2010
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Berkeley Lab researchers have discovered a new class of phase-change materials that could be applied to phase-change random access memory technologies and possibly optical data storage technologies. The binary eutectic-alloy nanostructures (BEANs) are nanocrystal alloys of a metal and semiconductor.

This schematic shows enthalpy curves sketched for the liquid, crystalline and amorphous phases of a newclass of nanomaterials called "BEANs" for BinaryEutectic-Alloy Nanostructures. Credit: Daryl Chrzan

The scientists found that embedding germanium tin nanocrystals within amorphous silica produced a bilobed nanostructure that was half crystalline metallic and half crystalline semiconductor. "Rapid cooling following pulsed laser melting stabilizes a metastable, amorphous, compositionally mixed phase state at room temperature, while moderate heating followed by slower cooling returns the nanocrystals to their initial bilobed crystalline state," says Berkeley Lab's Daryl Chrzan.

The researchers expect that the two structures' electronic transport and optical properties will differ significantly, and that this difference can be tuned via modifications in composition.

From Berkeley Lab News Center
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