Title: Crystallization of Ge:Sb:Te Thin Films for Phase Change Memory Application
Abstract: Chalcogenide glasses are a chemical compound consisting of at least one chalcogen element, sulphur, selenium, or tellurium, in combination with other elements. These glasses obtained great attention after discovery between 1962 and 1969 by Kolomiets, Eaton, Ovshinsky and Pearson of the S-shape current-voltage characteristic in chalcogenide glasses and the switching phenomenon from high to low resistivity states (Popescu, 2005). In 1968 S. R. Ovshinsky demonstrated very short (about of 10-10 seconds) reversible electrical switching phenomena in Te81Ge15Sb2S2 thin films due to amorphous-crystalline phase transition (Ovshinsky, 1968). This work opened a new area of phase change technology, which now is one of the most important technologies for memory devices and applications in computers, CD, DVD, phase-change random access memories, etc.