February 7, 2007

NSLS Research Could Lead to Faster Memory Chips

NSLS user and IBM researcher Simone Raoux at beamline X20C, where the new computer memory chip was partially characterized.

Research performed in part at the NSLS by a team of scientists from IBM and its partner companies has aided in the development of a material that could lead to a new kind of computer memory chip used for storing digital media. The phase-change material alloy, highlighted recently in The New York Times, was partially characterized at NSLS beamline X20C using time-resolved x-ray diffraction. A prototype device made from the material was described in a technical paper presented in December at the International Electron Devices Meeting in San Francisco. A separate paper describing these materials was presented in May at the European Symposium on Phase Change and Ovonic Science (EPCOS), for which NSLS users Simone Raoux and Jean Jordan-Sweet, both IBM researchers, won one of three best paper awards.

To read The New York Times article about the material, click here.

SCIENCE WRITER: Kendra Snyder