Crystal nucleation and growth processes in Ge2Sb2Te5

The kinetics of the amorphous-to-crystal transition in Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films have been studied through in situ transmission electron microscopy analyses. By following the time evolution of the grain density and size, the growth velocity and the nucleation rate have been separately measured at different annealing temperatures. Activation energies of 2.9+/-0.5 eV and 2.3+/-0.4 eV have been obtained for the nucleation rate and the growth velocity, respectively. The barrier energy for the nucleation of a critical nucleus DeltaG(*) has been evaluated, and the scalability of phase change nonvolatile memories has been estimated. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.