In this study, the amorphous-to-crystalline transitions of oxygen-doped Zn 15 Sb 85 materials were investigated by in situ film resistance measurements. After oxygen doping, the thermal stability, resistance and bandgap of the Zn 15 Sb 85 material increased significantly. The data retention temperature for 10 years increased from 58 • C of pure Zn 15 Sb 85 to 200 • C of oxygen-doped Zn 15 Sb 85 . The X-ray diffraction pattern showed that lots of Sb phases existed in O-doped Zn 15 Sb 85 , which induced the fast phase change. The formation of some Zn and Sb oxides were confirmed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The surface morphology observed by atomic force microscopy demonstrated that oxygen doping refined the grain size and restrained the crystallization. An ultra-short switching time of 2.40 ns was achieved for oxygen-doped Zn 15 Sb 85 material. The results showed that appropriate oxygen doping could improve the performance of the Zn 15 Sb 85 material in phase change memory.
In this paper, oxygen doped Sn 15 Sb 85 thin films were proposed to reduce the power consumption for phase change memory (PCM) application. Compared with Sn 15 Sb 85 , oxygen doped Sn 15 Sb 85 thin film had higher crystallization temperature (168 °C-255 °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 2.5 nm. Antimony oxide formed to enhance the thermal stability. In comparison to Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 , oxygen doped Sn 15 Sb 85 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 Sn 15 Sb 85 had a lower melting temperature (494 °C). PCM cells based on the oxygen doped Sn 15 Sb 85 thin film were fabricated to evaluate the electrical characteristics as well. The results indicated that the oxygen doped Sn 15 Sb 85 thin film had great potentiality in PCM application.
To improve thermal stability and reduce power dissipation of phase-change memory (PCM), the oxygen-doped Sn 15 Sb 85 (SS) thin film is proposed by magnetron sputtering in this study. Comparing to undoped Sn15Sb85(SS), the oxygendoped-SS thin film has superior thermal stability and better data retention. Meanwhile, the electrical conductivity of crystallisation oxygen-doped-SS thin film is also lower than that of SS, which means its less power consuming in PCM. The electrical conductivity ratio between amorphous and crystalline states for oxygen-doped SS reaches up to two orders of magnitude. After oxygen doping, the root-mean-square surface roughness from amorphous (0.29 nm) to crystalline (0.46 nm) state for oxygen-doped-SS thin films becomes smaller. The switching time of amorphisation process for the oxygen-doped-SS thin film (∼2.07 ns) is shorter than Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 (GST) (∼3.05 ns). X-ray diffractometer is recorded to investigate the change of crystalline structure. Thus, the authors infer that oxygen-doped SS is a promising phase-change thin film for PCM.
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