S. Ziegler

Laser induced crystallization of amorphous Ge2Sb2Te5 films

The crystallization behavior of Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films has been analyzed by atomic force microscopy and optical reflection measurements on various time scales in order to determine the crystallization kinetics including the crystallization mechanism, the corresponding activation barrier, and the Avrami coefficient. On the minute time scale, thin amorphous films were isothermally crystallized in a furnace under a protective Ar atmosphere. From these measurements the activation energy for crystallization was determined to be (2.0±0.2) eV, in close agreement with previous studies using different techniques. The isothermal measurements also revealed a temperature dependent incubation time for the formation of critical nuclei, which is compared with recent theories. On the nanosecond time scale, Ge2Sb2Te5 was locally crystallized with a focused laser. Either crystalline spots of submicron size were generated in an as deposited amorphous film or amorphous bits in an otherwise crystalline film were recrystallized....

Atomic force microscopy study of laser induced phase transitions in Ge2Sb2Te5

Micron- and submicron-size changes induced by local laser heating in thin films of Ge2Sb2Te5 are studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). This material is presently used for rewritable data storage that employs phase change recording. Reversible switching between the amorphous and crystalline states, which is accompanied by a considerable change in optical properties and film density, is exploited to store bits of information. The density change can be detected by AFM, which we use here to study the amorphization (writing) and recrystallization (erasure) of single bits. Both processes have been measured as a function of modification pulse power and duration. Morphology changes can be detected even if the phase change film is covered by a thin protective layer. AFM allows a precise determination of the bit size and bit depth, which characterizes the progress of the phase change in the direction of the surface normal. The present setup allows the correlation of the change in optical reflectance ΔR caused b...

Influence of Bi doping upon the phase change characteristics of Ge2Sb2Te5

The influence of Bi doping upon the phase change characteristics of Ge2Sb2Te5 alloys has been investigated using four-point-probe electrical resistance measurements, grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (XRD), x-ray reflectometry (XRR) and variable incident angle spectroscopic ellipsometry, a static tester and atomic force microscopy. For a Ge2Sb2Te5 alloy doped with 3% Bi, two transition temperatures are observed in the temperature dependent sheet resistance measurements at 136°C and 236°C, respectively. The evolution of structures upon annealing, investigated by XRD, reveals that the first transition is caused by the crystallization of the amorphous film to a NaCl-type structure, while the second transition is related to the transition to a hexagonal structure. The density values of 5.87±0.05gcm−3, 6.33±0.05gcm−3, and 6.41±0.05gcm−3 are measured by XRR for the film in the amorphous, NaCl-type, and hexagonal structure, respectively. Ultrafast crystallization, which is correlated with a single NaCl-structu...

Minimum time for laser induced amorphization of Ge2Sb2Te5 films

The minimum time t required to form an amorphous spot in a crystalline film of Ge2Sb2Te5 with NaCl structure was investigated for various applied laser powers P. An elementary power law of the form P∝t−0.5 is observed for pulse lengths larger than 10 ns which shows that amorphization occurs as soon as the melting temperature is reached. This implies that kinetic superheating does not occur on this time scale. The growth velocity of amorphous marks was inferred from atomic force microscopy (AFM) both parallel and perpendicular to the film plane. The growth in the vertical direction is shown to dominate the change in reflectivity and thus the size of the readout signal of data storage devices. The experimental data are compared with numerical calculation of the temperature field using finite element analysis. These calculations determine the position of the melt temperature isotherm and reproduce the depth and the area of the amorphous regions as inferred from AFM data.

The quest for fast phase change materials

Strategies are presented to identify phase change materials with fast transformation kinetics. A microscopic investigation of crystallization kinetics with a static tester and an atomic force microscope demonstrates that for different alloy compositions recrystallization proceeds either via growth from the crystalline rim or by nucleation and growth of critical nuclei. The influence of dielectric layers enables a further optimization of transformation kinetics.

Nucleation of AgInSbTe films employed in phase-change media

In phase-change technology small volumes of a chalcogenide material are switched between amorphous and crystalline states by local heating with a short laser or current pulses. AgInSbTe is an alloy frequently used in optical data storage, which could also be applied in electronic data storage. For those applications it is crucial to understand the reliability and reproducibility of the switching process. In this work the first crystallization of an AgInSbTe alloy has been studied on a microsecond time scale using a focused laser beam. The experiments show that nucleation is a process governed by statistics. A correlation between the success of a nucleation event with the probability of nucleation is established. By measuring the nucleation probability as a function of laser pulse duration, the incubation time is determined to 11μs. The results are compared to measurements of the growth velocity of this material. The analysis of the temperature dependence of the growth velocity explains why AgInSbTe shows ...

Microscopic studies of fast phase transformations in GeSbTe films

Abstract : Vital requirements for the future success of phase change media are high data transfer rates, i.e., fast processes to read, write and erase bits of information. The understanding and optimization of fast transformations is a considerable challenge since the processes only occur on a submicrometer length scale in actual bits. Hence both high temporal and spatial resolution is needed to unravel the essential details of the phase transformation. We employ a combination of fast optical measurements with microscopic analyses using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The AFM measurements exploit the fact that the phase transformation from amorphous to crystalline is accompanied by a 6% volume reduction. This enables a measurement of the vertical and lateral speed of the phase transformation. Several examples will be presented showing the information gained by this combination of techniques.

Exploring the Limits of Fast Phase Change Materials

In the last decade a number of chalcogenide alloys, including ternary alloys of GeSbTe and quaternary alloys of InAgSbTe, have been identified which enable fast phase change recording. In the quest for materials with improved phase change kinetics we present two different approaches. By comparing alloys with well-defined stoichiometries the mechanisms which govern the transformation kinetics are determined. Optical and electrical measurements determine the activation energy for crystallization to 2.24 ± 0.11 eV for Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 and to 3.71 ± 0.07 eV for Ge 4 Sb 1 Te 5 , respectively. It is shown that for GeSbTe-alloys with different composition the activation energy increases linearly with increasing Ge content. Power-time- reflectivity change diagrams recorded with a static tester reveal that Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 , in agreement with previous data, recrystallizes by the growth of sub critical nuclei, while Ge 4 Sb 1 Te 5 grows from the crystalline rim surrounding the bit. To speed up the search for faster materials we employ concepts of combinatorial material synthesis by producing films with a stoichiometry gradient. Then laterally resolved secondary neutral mass spectroscopy (SNMS) combined with the static tester are used to identify the composition with superior properties for phase change applications.

Nanofocusing parabolic refractive x-ray lenses

Parabolic refractive x-ray lenses with short focal distance can generate intensive hard x-ray microbeams with lateral extensions in the 100nm range even at short distance from a synchrotron radiation source. We have fabricated planar parabolic lenses made of silicon that have a focal distance in the range of a few millimeters at hard x-ray energies. In a crossed geometry, two lenses were used to generate a microbeam with a lateral size of 160nm by 115nm at 15.2keV at a distance of 47m from the synchrotron radiation source. First microdiffraction and fluorescence microtomography experiments were carried out with these lenses. Using diamond and boron as lens material, microbeams with lateral size down to 20nm and below are conceivable in the energy range from 10 to 100keV.