HTHP Home • Issue Contents • Forthcoming Papers
Density measurement of solid and molten Sb2 Te3 chalcogenide alloy by sessile drop method
Rui Lan, Rie Endo, Masashi Kuwahara, Yoshinao Kobayashi and Masahiro Susa
Sb2 Te3 chalcogenide alloy has been widely investigated due to its applications in phase change random access memory (PCRAM) and thermoelectric materials. The density of Sb2 Te3 alloy is a key factor for both applications. In this work, the densities of Sb2 Te3 chalcogenide alloy in solid and molten states have been determined as a function of temperature by the sessile drop method. The density at room temperature was also determined by the Archimedean method to verify the reliability of data obtained by the sessile drop method. The density of solid Sb2 Te3 alloy decreases linearly with increasing temperature and there is a discontinuous density decrease at the melting temperature due to the phase change. In the molten state, the density continues decreasing with increasing temperature. The molar volume of Sb2 Te3 chalcogenide alloy increases by about 4% from room temperature to just below the melting temperature and by 6% at the melting temperature from the solid to molten state, which may cause large stress for PCRAM devices.
Keywords: Density measurements, Sb2Te3, chalcogenide, solid and molten, sessile drop method, phase change random access memory, thermoelectric materials.