Influence of the composition on the thermoelectric and electro-physical properties of Ge-Sb-Te thin films for phase change memory application

Influence of the composition variation along the quasi-binary line GeTe-Sb2Te3 on the thermoelectric and electro-physical properties of thin films was investigated. GST amorphous thin films have high Seebeck coefficients, which drops nearly on the order of magnitude after the crystallization. Temperature dependences of the resistivities were studied, and it was determined that crystallization temperature increases with moving along the quasi-binary line GeTe-Sb2Te3 from GeSb4Te7 to GeSb2Te4, and then to Ge2Sb2Te5, while the phase transition temperature range decreases. Current-voltage characteristics of amorphous thin films have three voltage ranges with different dependencies due to the different mechanisms of charge carrier transport

MULTILAYER STRUCTURES BASED ON PCM WITH TUNABLE REFLECTION AND TRANSMISSION CHARACTERISTICS FOR FULLY OPTICAL ROUTING DEVICES

The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project # 19-37-60023

Low power reconfigurable multilevel nanophotonic devices based on Sn-doped Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films

In the past years, Ge2Sb2Te5 has been considered a promising functional material for a variety of reconfigurable multilevel devices, including photonic integrated circuits for the post-von Neumann arithmetic processing. However, despite significant advances, it is necessary to reduce the switching energy of Ge2Sb2Te5 for creation of the on-chip low power all-photonic spiking neural networks. The present work focuses on the effect of tin ion implantation on the properties of amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films, as well as on the performance of Mach-Zehnder interferometers and balanced beam splitters based on them. As a result, Sn-doping accompanied by the formation of weaker bonds in Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films is an efficient approach to significantly reduce the threshold energy of fs-laser initiated phase transitions and change the effective absorption coefficient. The possibility of using the Sn-doped Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films for fully optical multilevel reversible recording between 9 different levels (3 bits) has been demonstrated by experimental measurements of fabricated on-chip balanced beam splitters. The obtained results show that the Sn doping of Ge2Sb2Te5 layer can be used to optimize the properties of the GST225 thin films, in particular to reduce the switching energy. So, it has the potential to improve the characteristics of reconfigurable multilevel nanophotonic devices using the GST225 thin films, including fully non-volatile memory and developed on-chip low power all-photonic circuits for post-von Neumann arithmetic processin

Investigation of the Crystallization Kinetics in Ge-Sb-Te-Bi Thin Films for Phase Change Memory Application

In this work the mechanism and kinetics of crystallization of the Ge₂Sb₂Te₅+Bi thin films were investigated using differential scanning calorimetry. Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ with different amounts of Bi (0, 0.2, 0.5, 0.8, 1, 3, 5 wt.%) was synthesized using quenching technique. Thin films were prepared by thermal evaporation of synthesized materials. X-ray diffraction has shown that synthesized materials had trigonal modification of Ge₂Sb₂Te₅. Introduction of Bi led to the appearance of trigonal modification of Bi₂Ge₂Te₅, which indicates on the replacement of Sb by Bi. As-deposited thin films were amorphous up to 3% of Bi. Higher concentrations of Bi led to the appearance of crystalline phases. Composition of thin films was verified by Rutherford backscattering, and was found to be close to that of the synthesized materials. The joint application of model-free Ozawa-Flynn-Wall and model-fitting Coates-Redfern methods allowed to estimate kinetic triplet for crystallization process of GST225+Bi thin films, and to predict data processing and storage times of the phase change memory cells. It was shown that GST225+0.5 wt.% Bi thin films have the most promising kinetic characteristics among the investigated materials, due to the predicted smallest data processing and largest storage times

Technology and Investigation of Ohmic Contacts to Thermoelectric Materials

Technology is developed, materials and regimes of the fabrication of ohmic contacts to the effective thermoelectric materials $Bi_{2}Te_{2.8}Se_{0.2}$ (n-type) and $Bi_{0.5}Sb_{1.5}Te_{3}$ (p-type) are determined. Ohmic contacts were obtained by the vacuum deposition of nickel. Factors determining adhesion strength and resistivity of fabricated contacts are determined. Process of surface preparation of the thermoelectric materials before the ohmic contact deposition is optimized during the technology development. The use of electrochemical polishing, ultrasound treatment, finish cleaning in toluene and isopropyl alcohol vapor, and annealing in vacuum allowed achieving stable results in the formation of contacts. It was shown that contacts fabricated using of electron-beam evaporation of nickel possess maximum adhesion strength of 18-19 N/mm². It was found that high adhesion is caused by the existence of transition layer in the metal-thermoelectric material contact range, formed due to the interaction of metal with the components of thermoelectric material. Proposed technology allows obtaining ohmic contacts with the resistance of the unit area not exceeding $10^{-10}$ Ohm m²