Investigation of Ni Doped Ge-Te Materials for High Temperature Phase Change Memory Applications

Ni-doped Ge-Te (Ni-GT) material was proposed and investigated for phase change random access memory (PCRAM) applications. With Ni addition, the crystallization temperature, data retention ability and crystallization speed were obviously improved. The surface roughness of crystalline Ni-GT films was decreased by Ni incorporation. Moreover, temperature dependent transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was applied to investigate the phase change behavior of Ni-GT films. All the experimental results demonstrated that Ni-GT material has potential for high-speed PCRAM applications in high temperature environment.