Regulating phase change behavior and surface characteristics of Sn15Sb85 thin film by oxygen doping

摘要

In this paper, oxygen doped Sn15Sb85 thin films were proposed to reduce the power consumption for phase change memory (PCM) application. Compared with Sn15Sb85, oxygen doped Sn15Sb85 thin film had higher crystallization temperature (168 degrees C-255 degrees C) and broader energy band gap (1.23-1.55 eV). X-ray diffraction patterns and transmission electron microscope showed that the crystallization of thin film was suppressed and grains became smaller when oxygen was added. After oxygen doping, the surface roughness decreased from 13.6 to 2.5m. Antimony oxide formed to enhance the thermal stability. In comparison to Ge2Sb2Te5, oxygen doped Sn15Sb85 had an ultra-fast phase transition speed (3.9 ns) confirmed by laser picosecond technology. The result of differential scanning calorimetry revealed that oxygen doped Sn15Sb85 had a lower melting temperature (494 degrees C). PCM cells based on the oxygen doped Sn15Sb85 thin film were fabricated to evaluate the electrical characteristics as well. The results indicated that the oxygen doped Sn15Sb85 thin film had great potentiality in PCM application.