Search

Vanadium oxide (VO2) thin films have drawn significant research and development interest in recent years because of their intriguing physical origin and wide range of functionalities useful for many potential applications, including infrared imaging, smart windows, and energy and information technologies. However, the growth of highly epitaxial films of VO2, with a sharp and distinct controllable transition, has remained a challenge. Here, we report the structural and electronic properties of high quality and reproducible epitaxial thin films of VO2, grown on c-axis oriented sapphire substrates using pulsed laser deposition at different deposition pressures and temperatures, followed by various annealing schedules. Our results demonstrate that the annealing of epitaxial VO2 films significantly enhances the Semiconductor to Metal Transition (SMT) to that of bulk VO2 transition. The effect of oxygen partial pressure during the growth of VO2 films creates a significant modulation of the SMT from around room temperature to as high as the theoretical value of 68 °C. We obtained a bulk order transition ≥104 while reducing the transition temperature close to 60 °C, which is comparatively less than the theoretical value of 68 °C, demonstrating a clear and drastic improvement in the SMT switching characteristics. The results reported here will open the door to fundamental studies of VO2, along with tuning of the transition temperatures for potential applications for multifunctional devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a metal to insulator transition (MIT) temperature of ∼68 °C to 70 °C, which is close to room temperature (RT), vanadium oxide (VO2) has piqued interest in research communities for several applications, such as Mott-transistors and smart windows. This unique characteristic and multi-faceted application of VO2 makes it ideal for several fields, from consumer electronics to defense applications. However, despite this advantage over several other materials, VO2 has some serious shortcomings. In this paper, we attempt to address these issues, such as higher than RT transition temperature, metastability of the material, and its need for a separate heater layer to trigger the MIT, by using a stoichiometrically downgraded multi-layered structure that can both demonstrate the MIT property and serve as an embedded heater layer. This eliminates the need to use a system with a different material such as aluminum-doped zinc oxide. By using the multi-layered structure, we were able to achieve a transition temperature of ∼48 °C, which is ∼22 °C lower than the transition temperature of bulk VO2 films. We also noted a reduction of over 50% in transmission in the infra-red region by application of less than 15 V, as well as an enhancement of ∼10% in the visible region transmission beyond the MIT temperature, which demonstrates the potential of this structure to be used as an energy-efficient smart window device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) closest to room temperature of 68–70 °C as shown by vanadium oxide (VO2), compared with other transition metal oxides, makes it a potential candidate for smart window coating. We have successfully fabricated a potential smart window device after the optimum design of a multilayered thin film structure made out of transparent conducting oxide (aluminum doped zinc oxide) and pure VO2 using pulsed laser deposition technique. This comprehensive study is based on two different configurations for multi-layered structure approach, with the intention to reduce the transition temperature, as well as to maintain the MIT properties that would strengthen the potential of the structure to be used for a smart window device. By creating a multi-layered structure, we were able to create a low powered device that can operate less than 15 V that leads to significant decline in the infrared transmission by a magnitude of over 40% and provided sufficient heat to trigger the MIT at a temperature around 60 °C, which is almost 10 °C lower than its bulk counterpart. This finding would positively impact the research on VO2 thin films, not only as smart windows but also for numerous other applications like bolometers, infrared detectors, Mott transistors and many more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]