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Direct observation of amorphous to crystalline phase transitions in Ge–Sb–Te thin films by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction method

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Abstract

Ge–Sb–Te (GST)-based PCM alloys are currently used in optical data storage. The crystallization of GST materials is the rate-limiting step for these devices, hence a deeper knowledge of the crystallization mechanism is crucial for insightful development of faster devices. In the present work, the diffraction patterns for GST-225 thin films are studied using the in situ Grazing Incidence X-ray Diffraction method upon heating. It is shown that initial amorphous film in the temperature range from 120 to 140 °C is crystallized into two phases-cubic GST-225 (Fm\({\bar{3}}\)m), and trigonal GST-147 (P\({\bar{3}}\)m1). The crystallized film is stressed and highly textured, and should be characterized by the value of the lattice parameters averaged over all crystallographic planes. The structural transition of GST-225 from cubic to trigonal phase begins at T > 180 °C. The appearance of large-scale inhomogeneities in GST-225 film at T ≥  100 °C indicates that the process of rearrangement of atoms Ge, Sb, and Te in the as-deposited amorphous film begins long before the onset of crystallization.

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Acknowledgements

The study was carried out with the financial support of a Grant from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Project No. 20-03-00379). The authors are grateful to the staff of the Interdisciplinary Resource Center for Nanotechnology and the Center of X-ray diffraction studies at the Research park at the Saint Petersburg State University for preliminary research of Ge–Sb–Te films, as well as Saint Petersburg State University for financial support (Activity 6 - Grant for academic mobility 2018). Special thanks from I. I. Nikolaev for a personal scholarship from Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute named by B.P. Konstantinov of NRC \({\ll }\)Kurchatov Institute\(\gg\) (2017-2019). AVK acknowledges partial support of this work by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (Project No. FSZN-2020-0026). The authors are grateful to the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility for the opportunity to carry out of the diffraction measurements.

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  1. Sergey A. Kozyukhin

    Present address: National Research Tomsk State University, 36 Lenin Avenue, Tomsk, Russia, 634050

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry, RAS, 31 Leninskii prosp., Moscow, Russia, 119991

    Sergey A. Kozyukhin

  2. Saint-Petersburg State University, 1 Ulyanovskaya str., Peterhof, Saint-Petersburg, Russia, 199034

    Ilja I. Nikolaev, Gleb A. Valkovskiy & Natalia A. Grigoryeva

  3. National Research University of Electronic Technology, 1 Shokin Square, Zelenograd, Russia, 124498

    Petr I. Lazarenko

  4. European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, 71 Avenue des Martyrs, 38000, Grenoble, France

    Oleg Konovalov

  5. Herzen State Pedagogical University, 48 Moika Emb, st., St Petersburg, Russia, 191186

    Alexander V. Kolobov

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Kozyukhin, S.A., Nikolaev, I.I., Lazarenko, P.I. et al. Direct observation of amorphous to crystalline phase transitions in Ge–Sb–Te thin films by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction method. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 31, 10196–10206 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-020-03565-7

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