Influence of amorphous structure on polymorphism in vanadia

Journal Article · Fri Jul 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · APL Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4958674· OSTI ID:1262101

Stone, Kevin H.; Schelhas, Laura T.; Garten, Lauren M.; Shyam, Badri; Mehta, Apurva; Ndione, Paul F.; Ginley, David S.; Toney, Michael F.

Normally we think of the glassy state as a single phase and therefore crystallization from chemically identical amorphous precursors should be identical. Here we show that the local structure of an amorphous precursor is distinct depending on the initial deposition conditions, resulting in significant differences in the final state material. Using grazing incidence total x-ray scattering, we have determined the local structure in amorphous thin films of vanadium oxide grown under different conditions using pulsed laser deposition (PLD). Here we show that the subsequent crystallization of films deposited using different initial PLD conditions result in the formation of different polymorphs of VO₂. Ultimately this suggests the possibility of controlling the formation of metastable polymorphs by tuning the initial amorphous structure to different formation pathways.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Center for Next Generation of Materials by Design: Incorporating Metastability (CNGMD); SLAC National Accelerator Lab., Menlo Park, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: AC36-08GO28308; AC02-76SF00515
• OSTI ID: 1262101
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 1290793; OSTI ID: 1312735; OSTI ID: 1421196
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA-5K00-66923
• Journal Information: APL Materials, Journal Name: APL Materials Vol. 4 Journal Issue: 7; ISSN 2166-532X
• Publisher: American Institute of Physics
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
polymorphism
crystal structure
amorphous state
crystallization
pulsed laser deposition