Characterization of nanoscale recording mark on Ge2Sb2Te5 film

We have fabricated nanoscale recording marks on Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) films with conductive atomic force microscope (AFM). GST films were deposited on glass or polyimide film with thickness of 150–200 nm by the rf–sputtering method. Through current–voltage (I–V) spectroscopy, good cantilevers for fabrication and characterization of nanoscale marks on GST were selected. A fresh and highly conductive tip showed voltage-switching characteristic in the I–V curve, where the threshold voltage was ∼1.6 V. Nanoscale dot and wire arrays of crystalline phases were successfully obtained by varying sample bias voltage from −10 to 10 V. With highly conductive tips, nanowires having full-width at half-maximum of ∼20 nm could be fabricated, whereas nanowires could not be fabricated with bias voltage below −2 V. The width of the nanoscale mark was increased by repetition of AFM lithography even with same applied voltage and lithography speed. For a thicker nanowire, the width measured in current-image (C-image) was observed to be ∼2 times of that measured in topography-image (T-image). This result supports that current sensing provides an image of phase-changed GST area with higher resolution than topography sensing.