Effect of nitrogen on the amorphous structure and subthreshold electrical conduction of GeSeSb-based OTS thin films

Anthonin Verdy (1) , Francesco d'Acapito (2) , Jean-Baptiste Dory (1) , Gabriele Navarro (1) , Mathieu Bernard (1) , Pierre Noé (1)

1 LETI - Laboratoire d'électronique et des technologies de l'Information [Sfax]
2 ESRF - European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

In this study, the amorphous structure of Ge-Se-Sb-N chalcogenide thin films is investigated through Raman, Infrared and X-ray Absorption Spectroscopies in the light of the electrical performances of such materials once integrated in OTS selector devices. In particular, we show that the presence of homopolar and wrong bonds in the amorphous structure has a detrimental impact on the subthreshold leakage current of OTS devices. Whereas the presence of Sb-Sb and Ge-Sb bonds tends to increase the leakage current in pristine devices, the presence of Se-Se bonds is correlated to a significant device-to-device dispersion of sub-threshold characteristics after the device initialization. Finally, the incorporation of a proper N concentration in Ge-Se-Sb glass permits to suppress the homopolar bonds, leading to a very low leakage current and a low device-to-device dispersion.

Keywords: chalcogenide; OTS; memory; XAS; EXAFS; Ge; Se; Sb; N

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]

Anthonin Verdy, Francesco d'Acapito, Jean-Baptiste Dory, Gabriele Navarro, Mathieu Bernard, et al.. Effect of nitrogen on the amorphous structure and subthreshold electrical conduction of GeSeSb-based OTS thin films. physica status solidi (RRL) - Rapid Research Letters, In press. ⟨cea-02865466⟩