Outstanding phase-change behaviors of GaGeSbTe material for phase-change memory application

In this paper, GaGST films with different Ga contents were prepared by co-sputtering of Ge3.4Sb2.3Te5 target and Ga2Ge3.8Sb2.3Te5 target to obtain a high-speed and low-power phase change material. The present data emphasize that compared with Ge2Sb2Te5, Ga0.4Ge3.5Sb2.3Te5 exhibits a higher crystallization temperature(193 degrees C) and better data retention ability (108 degrees C for 10 years). XPS results show that Ga and Sb combine to form GaSb, and it reduces the density change after crystallization of GaGST material to 2.7%. At the same time, it has a smaller grain size(similar to 5-10 nm) and a lower drift(< 0.059). Furthermore, the behavior of reversible phase change can be realized by a 6 ns width electric pulse, and the power consumption under the action of this pulse only needs an ultra-low power consumption of 0.16pJ. The results of materials and devices show that Ga0.4Ge3.5Sb2.3Te5 is a very suitable material for phase-change memory(PCM).