Improved thermal stability and direct hexagonal transition accompanied by metal-insulator transition in Arsenic substituted Ge2Sb2Te5

Abstract

Amorphous chalcogenides, particularly Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) based alloys, are well known for their non-volatile phase-change random access memory applications (PCRAM). In this work, the phase change properties of Ge2Sb2−xAsxTe5 (x = 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0) thin films deposited by thermal evaporation are reported. The As substituted samples crystallize at higher temperatures compared to parent GST. During the phase change for x > 1.0, a direct transition from amorphous to the stable hexagonal structure has been observed. A distinct two-step transition in Sb rich samples and a single step transition for As rich samples are observed in R-T measurements with a high contrast in electrical resistivity. The transition is becoming sharper and sharper with increasing As substitution. A composition-dependent Metal-Insulator Transition (MIT) is also observed in these samples. Compared to GST, As substituted samples show an increase in crystallization temperature and activation energy for crystallization. For GST, the 10-year data retention temperature is 67 °C, and with complete As substitution, it increases to 169 °C, with a significant rise of 102 °C in the data retention temperature. High thermal stability, sharp transition and increased data retention of As substituted Ge-Sb-Te suggest that they are promising candidates for PCRAM applications.