Speakers
Description
Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is a material that shows an insulator to metal transition (IMT) near room temperature. This property can be exploited for applications in field effect devices, electro-optical switches and nonlinear circuit components. We have prepared VO2 thin films on silicon wafers with a native oxide by combining a low temperature MBE growth with an ex-situ annealing at high temperature. We investigated the structural, electrical and optical characteristics of films with thicknesses ranging from 10 to 100 nm. The films grown with our method are polycrystalline with a preferred orientation in the (011) direction of the monoclinic phase. An IMT at around 68 ∘C is observed while the magnitude of the resistance change across the transition increases with thickness. The refractive index at room temperature corresponds with values reported in the literature for thin films. The successful growth of VO2 films on silicon with good electrical and optical properties is an important step towards the integration of VO2 in novel devices. The authors acknowledge financial support from the FP7-ICT-2013-11-61456 SITOGA Project. P.H. acknowledges support from Becas Chile—CONICYT.
