A study of thin-film electrolyte with amorphous chalcogenide materials

Amorphous chalcogenide thin films have attracted much attention as a new advanced and replaceable material due to their electrical, optical and thermal properties. A programmable metallization cell (PMC) uses chalcogenide materials containing dissolved metal ions. A PMC is based on the electrochemical growth and removal of nanoscale metallic pathways in chalcogenide thin films of solid electrolytes. Samples of bulk AsGeSeS glasses have been prepared by melt quenching. A solid electrolyte material device without an access transistor has been successfully fabricated with a chalcogenide resistor with a Ag layer. We investigated resistance change characteristics with temperature and electric field direction on Ag/As40Ge10Se15S35 chalcogenide thin-film structure for PMC. Also, other evidence was confirmed, such as Auger electron spectroscopy for knowing the doping distance of metallic ions within the chalcogenide thin film. As the heat changes, each sample showed lower or higher resistance. The estimated resistance ratio was approximately 3000 times.