Experimental and theoretical investigations on effects of hydrostatic pressure on the electrical properties of rhombohedral Sb2Te3

We have investigated the effect of the hydrostatic pressure on the electrical properties of the rhombohedral phase change material Sb2Te3 both experimentally and theoretically. The resistance can be reduced by 24.9% when the applied hydrostatic pressure reaches 0.377 GPa in the experiment, which is consistent with the results of the calculations by using the first principles theoretical method. The increase of the conductivity of Sb2Te3 under the hydrostatic pressure can be ascribed to the reduction of the electronic band gap. Copyright 2011 Author(s). This article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. [doi:10.1063/1.3655902]