Simultaneous thermal stability and phase change speed improvement of Sn_(15)Sb_(85) thin film through erbium doping

摘要

In general, there is a trade off between the phase change speed and thermal stability in chalcogenide phase change materials, which leads to sacrifice the one in order to ensure the other. For improving the performance, doping is a widely applied technological process. Here, we fabricated Er doped Sn_(15)Sb_(85) thin films by magnetron sputtering. Compared with the pure Sn_(15)Sb_(85), we show that Er doped Sn_(15)Sb_(85) thin films exhibit simultaneous improvement over the thermal stability and the phase change speed. Thus, our results suggest that Er doping provides the opportunity to solve the contradiction. The main reason for improvement of both thermal stability and crystallization speed is due to the existence of Er-Sb and Er-Sn bonds in Er doped Sn_(15)Sb_(85) films. Hence, Er doped Sn_(15)Sb_(85) thin films are promising candidates for the phase change memory application, and this method could be extended to other lanthanide-doped phase change materials.