Characterization Of Ge Ions Implantation In Sb2te3 Thin Films For High Speed Phase Change Memory Application

Ge ion implantation is adopted for doping of Sb2Te3 thin films and modifying the amorphous to crystal transition kinetics. The crystallization temperatures, crystallization activation energies of crystallization, and thermal stability improve with the Ge dose increasing from 5x10(15) to 3.0x10(16) Ge-ions/cm(2). In the case of 1.0x10(16) Ge-ions/cm(2) dose, GexSb2Te3 phase change material exhibits a higher crystallization temperature (similar to 180 degrees C), a larger crystallization activation energy (similar to 3.7eV), and a better data retention ability (similar to 102 degrees C for 10years) in comparison with Ge2Sb2Te5. A reversible switching between Set and Reset can be realized by an electric pulse width as short as 10ns for GexSb2Te3 based phase change memory.