Influence of silicon on the thermally-induced crystallization process of Si-Sb ₄Te phase change materials

Si-Sb ₄Te phase change thin films with different silicon contents have been investigated by in situ heating technique in transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The studies show that Si-doping can significantly improve the thermal stability of Si-Sb ₄Te thin films, refine their grain size, and change the nucleation characters with the increase of silicon content. By in situ annealing in TEM, the crystalline phase of Si-Sb ₄Te thin films can be indexed as hexagonal Sb structure, and Si is still holding amorphous state which is considered as the reason for the change, by destroying the long-range order lattice of crystal grains.