Crystallization characteristics of nitrogen-doped Sb2Te3 films for PRAM application

Abstract The Sb 2 Te 3 film is an attractive candidate for phase change random access memory (PRAM) due to its rapid crystallization speed. However, the Sb 2 Te 3 film has unstable amorphous phase. In order to improve the phase stability and easy reamorphization, the nitrogen-doped Sb 2 Te 3 films were proposed. The characteristics of nitrogen-doped Sb 2 Te 3 films were investigated using the secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS), 4-point probe technique, X-ray diffraction and static test. The nitrogen doping caused the increase of crystallization temperature and sheet resistance of the Sb 2 Te 3 films. Furthermore, the crystallization speed of nitrogen-doped Sb 2 Te 3 film was superior to the Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 film.