Title
Indium local geometry in In-Sb-Te thin films using XANES and DFT calculations
Date Issued
15 December 2017
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Bilovol V.
Mudarra Navarro A.M.
Errico L.
Fontana M.
Arcondo B.
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
Publisher(s)
Elsevier B.V.
Abstract
In-Sb-Te when is a thin film presents a huge difference in its electrical resistivity when transform from the amorphous (insulating) to the crystalline (conducting) phase. This property made this system one of the main phase-change materials used in the data storage industry. The change in the electrical conductivity is probably associated to a change in the bonding geometry of some of its constituents. To explore this point, we present in this work an study of the bonding geometry of In atoms in In-Sb-Te films by means of In K-edge X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation in both as deposited (amorphous) and crystalline thin films obtained as a result of resistance (R) vs temperature (T) measurements. Comparison of the XANES spectra obtained for ternary amorphous films and binary crystalline reference films suggests that in amorphous films the bonding geometry of In atoms is tetrahedral-like. After the thermal annealing has been carried out the differences in the XANES spectra of the as deposited and the annealed films indicate that the bonding geometry of In atoms changes. Based on X-ray diffraction results and ab initio calculations in the framework of the Density Functional Theory (DFT) we show that the new coordination geometry is associated with a tendency of In atoms towards octahedral-like.
Start page
1066
End page
1073
Volume
425
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Química física Física de la materia condensada
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85025140873
Source
Applied Surface Science
ISSN of the container
01694332
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus