Abstract
The present work describes the process of obtaining thin films of Ge1Sb2Te4 by means of the short-pulse High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) technique. The Ge1Sb2Te4 (GST-124) and nitrogen Ge1Sb2Te4 (nitrogen GST-124) films were obtained in HiPIMS plasma ignited in Ar/GST-124 and Ar/N2/GST-124, respectively. In particular, the possibility of tailoring the electrical properties of films for applications in the phase change memory (PCM) cells was investigated. The I–V measurements performed in a voltage sweeping mode on GST-124 and nitrogen GST-124 show that the threshold switching voltage varies as a function of nitrogen level in HiPIMS plasma. Amorphous-to-crystalline trigonal phase transition of the films was induced by thermal annealing, and structural changes were identified using X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering spectroscopy. The most intense bands appeared for the annealed layers in the range of 138–165 cm−1, for GST-124, and 138–150 cm−1 for nitrogen GST-124, respectively.
Highlights
Over the last few years, phase change memory (PCM) based on the GeSbTe (GST) chalcogenide has attracted attention in the field of microelectronics technology
Amorphous-to-crystalline trigonal phase transition of the films was induced by thermal annealing, and structural changes were identified using X-ray diffraction and Raman scattering spectroscopy
The I–V measurements of thin film were performed in the voltage sweep mode to confirm the switching properties for GST-124 and nitrogen GST-124, respectively
Summary
Over the last few years, phase change memory (PCM) based on the GeSbTe (GST) chalcogenide has attracted attention in the field of microelectronics technology. The energy required to switch between the two phases (amorphous to crystalline) depends on the material properties, and on the structural design of the device fabrication. Among these systems, interfacial phase change memory (iPCM). The fast change from the amorphous to the metastable phase of GST films done by laser irradiation was studied by aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (Cs-corrected STEM). The addition of dopants into GST leads to larger resistance in the crystalline phase, with a beneficial reduction of write current, and a significantly improved retention time of the amorphous phase due to the increased crystallization temperature. It is well known that, due to the very high electron density in HiPIMS, both sputtered metal flux and reactive gas flux are highly ionized, leading to an increased reactivity on the film surface and a better and easier control of the elemental and phase composition of the compound films [25,26,27]
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