Surface oxidation phenomena in Ge-rich GeSbTe alloys and N doping influence for Phase-Change Memory applications

Phase-Change Memory technology is increasing in maturity and in interest for next generation of non-volatile memory applications. In order to take advantage of the properties of innovative phase-change layers such as Ge-rich GST alloys, the understanding of the phenomena behind the possible evolution of the layer in time and temperature becomes fundamental. In this work, we present in detail the protocol we have developed using pARXPS technique, to reliably measure the surficial oxidation thickness on Ge-rich GST alloys with different nitrogen doping level. A double oxidation kinetic was observed on these samples for the first time, as well as an influence by nitrogen doping, and analyzed in detail by complementarily using pARXPS and TEM-EDX techniques.