Computationally efficient machine-learned model for GST phase change materials via direct and indirect learning

Phase change materials such as Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) are ideal candidates for next-generation, non-volatile, solid-state memory due to the ability to retain binary data in the amorphous and crystal phases and rapidly transition between these phases to write/erase information. Thus, there is wide interest in using molecular modeling to study GST. Recently, a Gaussian Approximation Potential (GAP) was trained for GST to reproduce Density Functional Theory (DFT) energies and forces at a fraction of the computational cost [Zhou et al., Nat. Electron. 6, 746 (2023)]; however, simulations of large length and time scales are still challenging using this GAP model. Here, we present a machine-learned (ML) potential for GST implemented using the Atomic Cluster Expansion (ACE) framework. This ACE potential shows comparable accuracy to the GAP potential but performs orders of magnitude faster. We train the ACE potentials both directly from DFT and also using a recently introduced indirect learning approach where the potential is trained instead from an intermediate ML potential, in this case, GAP. Indirect learning allows us to consider a significantly larger training set than could be generated using DFT alone. We compare the directly and indirectly learned potentials and find that both reproduce the structure and thermodynamics predicted by the GAP and also match experimental measures of GST structure. The speed of the ACE model, particularly when using graphics processing unit acceleration, allows us to examine repeated transitions between crystal and amorphous phases in device-scale systems with only modest computational resources.