Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters, 15 (6) H205-H207 (2012) H205 1099-0062/2012/15(6)/H205/3/$28.00 © The Electrochemical Society The Influence of Sputtering Power on Phase-Change Films

Sputter-deposited amorphous films of a phase-changematerial (Ge2Sb2Te5) were prepared with various magnetron sputtering powers to determine its influence. Microscopic characteristics indicate that the sputtering power affects the film morphology: high sputtering powers lead to inhomogeneous domain-like patterns. The transition temperature from a metastable phase to a hexagonal phase decreased as the sputtering power increased. However, an analysis of the radial distribution functions indicates that the sputtering power did not have a distinct influence on the inner atomic structure of the amorphous phase. Therefore, a low sputtering power is beneficial to improve the quality of sputtered amorphous films