Nanoscale structural evolution of electrically driven insulator to metal transition in vanadium dioxide

Journal Article · Mon Dec 23 00:00:00 EST 2013 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4858468· OSTI ID:22253151

Freeman, Eugene; Shukla, Nikhil; Datta, Suman ^[1]; Stone, Greg; Engel-Herbert, Roman; Gopalan, Venkatraman ^[2]; Paik, Hanjong ^[3]; Moyer, Jarrett A. ^[4]; Cai, Zhonghou; Wen, Haidan ^[5]; Schlom, Darrell G. ^[3]

---

1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 (United States)
2. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 (United States)
3. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853 (United States)
4. Department of Physics and Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801 (United States)
5. Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois 60439 (United States)

The structural evolution of tensile strained vanadium dioxide thin films was examined across the electrically driven insulator-to-metal transition by nanoscale hard X-ray diffraction. A metallic filament with rutile (R) structure was found to be the dominant conduction pathway for an electrically driven transition, while the majority of the channel area remained in the monoclinic M1 phase. The filament dimensions were estimated using simultaneous electrical probing and nanoscale X-ray diffraction. Analysis revealed that the width of the conducting channel can be tuned externally using resistive loads in series, enabling the M1/R phase ratio in the phase coexistence regime to be tuned.

• OSTI ID: 22253151
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 103, Issue 26; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
EVOLUTION
FILAMENTS
HARD X RADIATION
METALS
MONOCLINIC LATTICES
NANOSTRUCTURES
RUTILE
STRAINS
THIN FILMS
VANADIUM OXIDES
X-RAY DIFFRACTION