The annealing process at 400.degree. C. or more required for the wiring process for a phase change memory has posed the problem in that the crystal grains in a chalcogenide material grow in an oblique direction to cause voids in a storage layer. The voids, in turn, cause peeling due to a decrease in adhesion, variations in resistance due to improper contact with a plug, and other undesirable events. After the chalcogenide material has been formed in an amorphous phase, post-annealing is conducted to form a (111)-oriented and columnarly structured face-centered cubic. This is further followed by high-temperature annealing to form a columnar, hexagonal closest-packed crystal. Use of this procedure makes it possible to suppress the growth of inclined crystal grains that causes voids, since crystal grains are formed in a direction perpendicular to the surface of an associated substrate.