History of Phase Change Memories -- History of Phase Change Memories -- Material Science: Theory and Experiment -- Density Functional Theory Calculations for Phase Change Materials -- Nature of Glasses -- Structure of Amorphous Ge-Sb-Te Solids -- Experimental Methods for Material Selection in Phase-change Recording -- Scaling Properties of Phase Change Materials -- Crystallization Kinetics -- Short and Long-Range Order in Phase Change Materials -- Optical and Electrical Properties of Phase Change Materials -- Development of Materials for Third Generation Optical Storage Media -- Novel Deposition Methods -- Applications: Optical, Solid State Memory and Reconfigurable Logic -- Optical Memory: From 1st to 3rd Generation and its Future -- 4th Generation Optical Memories Based on Super-resolution Near-field structure (Super-RENS) and Near-field Optics -- Phase Change Memory Device Modeling -- Phase Change Random Access Memory Advanced Prototype Devices and Scaling -- Phase Change Memory Cell Concepts and Designs -- Phase Change Random Access Memory Integration -- Reconfigurable Logic.

Phase Change Materials: Science and Applications provides a comprehensive overview of the properties that characterize phase change materials from theoretical and experimental perspectives, with a focus on emerging technological applications. An informative introductory chapter provides the history of phase change memories, including the discovery, early systems and advances over time. Density functional theory calculations, experimental methods for materials selection, crystallization kinetics and scaling behavior are among the wide scope of theoretical and experimental topics covered. The history, current status and potential new techniques are discussed in a section devoted to successful application in optical data storage, in additional to valuable coverage of solid state memory and reconfigurable logic applications, currently in developmental stages, soon to enter the market. Researchers, students and engineers involved with materials science will find Phase Change Materials: Science and Applications a valuable reference.