Innovative Nanocomposites for Low Power Phase‐Change Memory: GeTe/C Multilayers

Damien Térébénec (1) , Nicolas Bernier (1) , Niccolo Castellani (1) , Mathieu Bernard (1) , Jean-Baptiste Jager (2) , Martina Tomelleri (1) , Jessy Paterson (1) , Marie-Claire Cyrille (1) , Nguyet-Phuong Tran (1) , Valentina Giordano (3) , Françoise Hippert (4) , Pierre Noé (1)

1 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information
2 IRIG - Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire de Grenoble
3 iLM - ENERGIE - iLM - Transport, Nanomagnétisme et Matériaux pour l'Énergie
4 LMGP - Laboratoire des matériaux et du génie physique

Innovative nanocomposites consisting of [(GeTe)4 nm/C1 nm]10 multilayers (MLs) deposited by magnetron sputtering are integrated in phase-change memory (PCM) test devices with a “wall structure.” Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) shows that an ML structure, with crystallized GeTe layers, is kept after integration in as-fabricated devices and also after an additional annealing of the devices at 425 °C. The programming current (RESET current) required to reach the high resistance state of [(GeTe)4 nm/C1 nm]10 ML devices decreases by 45% after annealing at 425 °C. The reduction in RESET current is 55% and the reduction in drift coefficient is about 40% in ML devices annealed at 425 °C compared to similar devices incorporating Ge2Sb2Te5. STEM imaging, coupled with nano-beam electron diffraction and electron energy loss spectroscopy, of ML devices in the high resistance state shows that the RESET current reduction after annealing is correlated to a reduction of the amorphized volume.

Mots clés: GeTe; multilayers; nanocomposites; phase-change memory; STEM

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]

Damien Térébénec, Nicolas Bernier, Niccolo Castellani, Mathieu Bernard, Jean-Baptiste Jager, et al.. Innovative Nanocomposites for Low Power Phase‐Change Memory: GeTe/C Multilayers. physica status solidi (RRL) - Rapid Research Letters, 2022, 16 (9), pp.2200054. ⟨10.1002/pssr.202200054⟩. ⟨hal-03692744⟩