The radiation hardness of amorphous Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 phase-change random-access memory material has been elucidated by ab initio molecular-dynamics simulations. Ionizing radiation events have been modeled to investigate their effect on the atomic and electronic structure of the glass. Investigation of the short-and medium-range order highlights a structural recovery of the amorphous network after exposure to the high-energy events modeled in this study. Analysis of the modeled glasses reveals

more »

... ific structural rearrangements in the local atomic geometry of the glass, as well as an increase in the formation of large shortest-path rings. The electronic structure of the modeled system is not significantly affected by the ionizing radiation events, since negligible differences have been observed before and after irradiation. These results provide a detailed insight into the atomistic structure of amorphous Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 after irradiation and demonstrate the radiation hardness of the glass matrix. radiation damage | phase-change memory | molecular dynamics | stochastic boundary conditions | thermal spike