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Title: Thermally driven analog of the Barkhausen effect at the metal-insulator transition in vanadium dioxide

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4896624· OSTI ID:22350787
; ;  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [1]
  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005 (United States)
  2. Department of Physics, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117551 (Singapore)
  3. Applied Physics Program, Rice Quantum Institute, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005 (United States)

The physics of the metal-insulator transition (MIT) in vanadium dioxide remains a subject of intense interest. Because of the complicating effects of elastic strain on the phase transition, there is interest in comparatively strain-free means of examining VO{sub 2} material properties. We report contact-free, low-strain studies of the MIT through an inductive bridge approach sensitive to the magnetic response of VO{sub 2} powder. Rather than observing the expected step-like change in susceptibility at the transition, we argue that the measured response is dominated by an analog of the Barkhausen effect, due to the extremely sharp jump in the magnetic response of each grain as a function of time as the material is cycled across the phase boundary. This effect suggests that future measurements could access the dynamics of this and similar phase transitions.

OSTI ID:
22350787
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 13; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English