Studies of Crystallization Processes of Amorphous Chalcogenide Thin Films with Electrical Measurements

Abstract

Electrical measurements have been carried out to elucidate the crystallization processes of amorphous Te:Se thin films, which have been applied to information storage media. A model has been proposed to explain the conductivity changes of the material with time at various temperatures, in which surface-induced crystallization plays a key role. The surface-induced crystallization velocity and activation energy are determined to be 4.2×10 2 nm/s at 338 K and 1.75 eV, respectively. The influence of aging on the crystallization is also examined.