In the present work, the authors show that Ge1Se1Te2 thin films provide a promising alternative for phase-change random access memory (PRAM) applications to overcome the problems of conventional Ge2Sb2Te5 PRAM devices. 100-nm-thick chalcogenide Ge1Se1Te2 thin films were prepared by evaporating a stoichiometric bulk target, and Ge1Se1Te2 thin-film PRAM devices with a 20-mu m-sized memory cell have been fabricated. The devices exhibited a successful switching between an amorphous and a crystalline phase by applying a 50 ns, 7.3 V set pulse and a 30 ns, 7.4 V reset pulse with a switching dynamic range (the ratio of R-high to R-low) as high as 10(3). For a static-mode switching operation, two different resistance states in Ge1Se1Te2 thin films have been observed at low voltages, depending on the two different crystalline states of the film. The first phase-transition temperature of Ge1Se1Te2 thin film is found to be 110 degrees C, which is clearly lower than that of Ge2Sb2Te5 films from the temperature-dependent conductivity measurements. From field emission scanning electron microscope and x-ray diffraction analyses, the authors confirmed that phase-change properties of Ge1Se1Te2 materials are closely related to the structure of the amorphous state and crystalline state. (c) 2007 American Vacuum Society.