Local structure of nitrogen in N-doped amorphous and crystalline GeTe

The local structure around nitrogen species in N-doped GeTe has been investigated using (soft) x-ray absorption spectroscopy and high-resolution x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. The obtained results demonstrate that while in as-deposited amorphous GeTe nitrogen is predominantly bonded to Ge atoms, upon crystallization the majority of nitrogen forms N2 molecules that are likely to be located in the grain boundaries, with only a small fraction of nitrogen species remaining bonded to Ge.