Ageing Effect of Sb2Te3 thin films

TL;DR

This study investigates how the electrical resistance of Sb2Te3 thin films changes over time depending on deposition temperature, revealing phase transformations and oxidation effects that influence their long-term stability.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the aging behavior of Sb2Te3 thin films, highlighting the effects of deposition temperature on resistance evolution and phase stability over time.

Findings

Room temperature films show decreasing resistance due to amorphous to micro-crystalline transformation.

Elevated temperature films exhibit increasing resistance due to oxidation and diffusion.

Underlying layers remain amorphous even after two years.

Abstract

Post deposition variation in film resistance of Sb2Te3 films deposited on glass substrates at room temperature and an elevated temperature (110oC) are investigated. The resistance of films grown at room temperature shows a non-linear decrease with time which is thickness dependent as opposed to the increasing resistance of film grown at elevated temperature. The decreasing resistance with time can be attributed to the transformation of an amorphous phase of the as-grown film to a micro-crystalline phase as revealed by X-ray diffraction. The increasing resistance was found to be due to the surface oxidation (Sb2O3) and a diffusion as a function of time. However, the underneath layer of Sb2Te3 below the top Sb2O3 layer remains amorphous even after two years from the date of fabrication.