Characterization of nitrogen-doped Sb2Te3 films and their application to phase-change memory

Abstract

In this study, sputtered undoped and nitrogen doped Sb 2 Te 3 ͑ST and STN͒ films were systematically investigated by x-ray diffraction ͑XRD͒ and resistance measurements. Their application to lateral phase-change memory ͑PCM͒ is presented as well. The STN film sputtered at a flow rate ratio ͑N 2 /Ar͒ of 0.07 proved to have both high stability and low power consumption, implying its high performance in PCM applications. In the STN films ͑N 2 /ArϾ 0.15͒, the hexagonal Te phase first appeared at 160°C, and then the orthorhombic SbN phase appeared at 290°C. The phase separation made it very difficult for these films to switch reversibly between the crystalline and the amorphous phase.

Crystallization of Ge:Sb:Te Thin Films for Phase Change Memory Application

“…Upon annealing, amorphous Sb 2 Te 3 films crystallize in rhombohedral Sb 2 Te 3 , Lv et al, 2010 or fcc structure, which at a temperature above 200 0 C transforms into an hexagonal phase (Yin et al, 2007, Zhu et al, 2011. In the investigated Sb 2 Te 3 films within the temperature range comprised between 95-200 0 C, only the rhombohedral phase (JCPDS data #15-0874) has been observed.…”

“…This material is an attractive candidate for phase change random access memory due to its rapid crystallization speed, but the crystallization temperature of Sb 2 Te 3 (about 94°C in material investigated in this chapter and between 90-100°C reported in the literature (Yin et al, 2007, Kim et al, 2010) is too low for it to be of practical use.…”

Experimental and theoretical investigations on effects of hydrostatic pressure on the electrical properties of rhombohedral Sb2Te3

“…Sb 2 Te 3 exhibits the growth-dominated crystallization process and the set operation speed is faster than that of Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 in which the crystallization process is nucleation dominated. [7][8][9] Several studies [10][11][12][13] have been performed to date the phase transformation achieved within nanosecond between the amorphous phase and crystalline phase.…”

High-Resolution X-Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Study of a Sb2Te3Thin Film with the Polycrystalline Phase

“…Although the low crystallization temperature (＜100 o C) prevents its practical application in PRAM, doping with other elements is under scrutiny to improve the stability of the amorphous phase [3,4]. Many research groups have focused on device fabrication, rapid crystallization, and enhanced phase stability for PRAM application.…”

“…Among the chalcogenide materials, the GeTe-Sb 2 Te 3 pseudo-binary films have been widely investigated as a candidate for the rewritable optical disk and PRAM applications [1][2][3][4].…”