In a phase change memory the device resistance corresponding to the amorphous phase monotonically increases with time after the reset programming operation. This phenomenon, called drift, affects the stability of the high resistive state, namely the reset state. In this work we investigate the resistance-drift process through ellipsometric measurements as a function of time in thin film of as-deposited amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5 alloy. We show a tight correlation between the resistance increase with time and the optical band gap widening extracted by ellipsometric measurements. This characterization supports the drift origin due to a structural atomic rearrangement of the amorphous network affecting the band structure that, in particular, promotes the increase of the energy gap and the reduction of localized states within the energy gap.

This work investigates the atomic structural relaxation accounting for the resistance drift of the amorphous phase of the Ge2Sb2Te5 (α-GST) chalcogenide alloy. A joint electrical and optical characterization over time on both the phase change memory cell in the reset state and the as-deposited amorphous GST film has been performed to elucidate the origin of the drift phenomenon. We highlight that the drift mechanism is ascribed to the removal of residual resonant-like bonding in the amorphous network, lowering the electronic component of the dielectric constant (ɛ∞) and leading to a progressive loosing of any medium-range order.