Characterization of Fe-doped In-Sb-Te (Fe: 10 at.%) material with individual electrical-phase-change and magnetic properties

We propose a new electrical-phase-change magnetic material, namely Fe-doped In-Sb-Te (FIST), for possible non-volatile multi-bit memory applications. FIST was formed by typical co-sputter method with Fe 10 at.% doping in In3Sb1Te2. FIST offers the electrical-phase-change and magnetic properties by way of the change of In 4d chemical bonding density and embedded Fe nanoclusters with the size of 4∼5 nm, respectively. It maintained the amorphous phase on the electrical-phase-change. Chemical state of In was only changed to increase the density of In-In chemical bonding during the electrical-phase-change without Fe nanoclusters contribution. Also, the magnetic property by Fe nanoclusters was not changed by the electrical-phase-change. On this basis, we propose the FIST material with the individual electrical-phase-change and magnetic properties for the multi-bit nonvolatile memory materials.