Mesoscopic Metal-Insulator Transition at Ferroelastic Domain Walls in VO2
- ORNL
- University of Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens, France
- Asylum Research, Santa Barbara, CA
- Southern Illinois University
The novel phenomena induced by symmetry breaking at homointerfaces between ferroic variants in ferroelectric and ferroelastic materials have attracted recently much attention. Using variable temperature scanning microwave microscopy, we demonstrate the mesoscopic strain-induced metal-insulator phase transitions in the vicinity of ferroelastic domain walls in the semiconductive VO2 that nucleated at temperatures as much as 10-12 C below bulk transition, resulting in the formation of conductive channels in the material. Density functional theory is used to rationalize the process low activation energy. This behavior, linked to the strain inhomogeneity inherent in ferroelastic materials, can strongly affect interpretation of phase-transition studies in VO2 and similar materials with symmetry-lowering transitions, and can also be used to enable new generations of electronic devices though strain engineering of conductive and semiconductive regions.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 986398
- Journal Information:
- ACS Nano, Vol. 4, Issue 8
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Nanoscale Origins of Ferroelastic Domain Wall Mobility in Ferroelectric Multilayers
Ferroelasticity and domain physics in two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers