Crystallization kinetics of GeTe phase-change thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition. (30th June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Sun, Xinxing; Thelander, Erik; Gerlach, Jürgen W; Decker, Ulrich; Rauschenbach, Bernd
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Volume 48:Number 29(2015)
• Publication Date: 2015-06-30
• Subjects: phase change material -- pulsed laser deposition -- GeTe -- crystallization kinetics; Physics -- Periodicals; 530
• DOI: 10.1088/0022-3727/48/29/295304
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-3727

Abstract

Abstract: Pulsed laser deposition was employed to the growth of GeTe thin films on Silicon substrates. X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the critical crystallization temperature lies between 220 and 240 °C. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to investigate the crystallization kinetics of the as-deposited films, determining the activation energy to be 3.14 eV. Optical reflectivity and in situ resistance measurements exhibited a high reflectivity contrast of ~21% and 3–4 orders of magnitude drop in resistivity of the films upon crystallization. The results show that pulsed laser deposited GeTe films can be a promising candidate for phase-change applications.