Crystallization kinetics of GeTe phase-change thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition

Pulsed laser deposition was employed to the growth of GeTe thin films on Silicon substrates. X-ray diffraction measurements reveal that the critical crystallization temperature lies between 220 and 240 degrees C. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to investigate the crystallization kinetics of the as-deposited films, determining the activation energy to be 3.14 eV. Optical reflectivity and in situ resistance measurements exhibited a high reflectivity contrast of similar to 21% and 3-4 orders of magnitude drop in resistivity of the films upon crystallization. The results show that pulsed laser deposited GeTe films can be a promising candidate for phase-change applications.