Abstract
Chalcogenide glassy semiconductors (CGSs) have now found application in numerous devices of micro-nano- and optoelectronics. To date, the increased interest of researchers is caused by the creation of devices for non-volatile phase change random access memory (PC-RAM) based on these materials. Despite the widespread use of CGS in various electronic devices, today the problem of effective control of their electronic properties remains relevant since the classical methods for controlling the properties of semiconductors with a crystal structure for CGS turned out to be ineffective. In the present work, we have fabricated bismuth-doped Ge2Sb2Te5 films using direct current ion-plasma sputtering method. High resolution TEM analysis showed that the structure of films with a Bi impurity concentration of 12.54 at. % is an amorphous matrix with isolated crystalline nanoregions of metallic bismuth,$\sim 8$nm in size. The crystal structure of pure and modified with bismuth Ge2Sb2Te5 films was studied by Quantum espresso simulation (DFT). It was noted that in modified Ge2Sb2Te5 films with bismuth, the improved quantum chemical properties were observed for the Ge2Sb2Te5 during the doping with bismuth. Studies of the current-voltage characteristic resulted in the identification of the reversible switching effect in the bismuth-modified Ge2Sb2Te5 film.