Dresden 2009 – scientific programme

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DS: Fachverband Dünne Schichten

DS 26: Poster II

DS 26.16: Poster

Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 09:30–12:30, P5

Crystallization kinetics of ternary germanium-antimony-tellurium phase change alloys — •Malte Linn, Michael Klein, and Matthias Wuttig — I. Physikalisches Institut (IA), RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany

Phase change materials, such as Ge₂Sb₂Te₅ and other pseudo-binary alloys, are widely used as optical storage media, especially in rewriteable DVDs or Blue Ray Disks. In the upcoming future, phase change RAMs will be competing with today’s DRAM-cells and phase change memory cells replacing common Flash devices will enter the market soon. To understand and to control the optical writing and the electrical switching process in optical and electrical storage media, it is crucial to investigate the kinetic parameters, which are characteristic for each phase change alloy and which strongly depend on stoichiometry.

By isothermal annealing with a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and ex-situ atomic force microscope (AFM) measurements, nucleation and growth parameters can be determined and conclusions about growth velocity, activation energy and long term stability can be made. To find new and promising phase change alloys for applications, a comparison between well studied Ge₂Se₂Te₅ and rather unexplored materials like Ge₈Sb₂Te₁₁ is performed to investigate stoichiometric trends.