Phase-change properties of GeSbTe thin films deposited by plasma-enchanced atomic layer depositon

Sannian Song, Dongning Yao, Zhitang Song, Lina Gao, Zhonghua Zhang, Le Li, Lanlan Shen, Liangcai Wu, Bo Liu, Yan Cheng, Songlin Feng

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Phase-change access memory (PCM) appears to be the strongest candidate for next-generation high-density nonvolatile memory. The fabrication of ultrahigh-density PCM depends heavily on the thin-film growth technique for the phase-changing chalcogenide material. In this study, Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) and GeSb8Te thin films were deposited by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (ALD) method using Ge [(CH3)2 N]4, Sb [(CH3)2 N]3, Te(C4H9)2 as precursors and plasma-activated H2 gas as reducing agent of the metallorganic precursors. Compared with GST-based device, GeSb8Te-based device exhibits a faster switching speed and reduced reset voltage, which is attributed to the growth-dominated crystallization mechanism of the Sb-rich GeSb8Te films. These results show that ALD is an attractive method for preparation of phase-change materials.

Original languageEnglish
Article number89
JournalNanoscale Research Letters
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Atomic layer deposition
  • Electric properties
  • Microstructure
  • Phase-change memory

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