Phase-change oscillations in silicon wires

Relaxation oscillations are observed in systems where an element with resistance switching characteristic, such as discharge tubes, tunnel diodes, bistable quantum hall effect devices, phase-change memory (PRAM) devices, is connected in parallel with a capacitor (C) and biased through a load resistor (RL). The hysteretic behavior in the resistance switching of these elements allows the capacitor to charge when the device is in high-resistance state and discharge when the device switches to low resistance state in repeated cycles. We have recently reported observations of large amplitude oscillations of this nature due to solid-liquid phase changes in silicon (Si) wires. These oscillations had frequencies on the order of 1-2 MHz.