Dynamically tracking the joule heating effect on the voltage induced metal-insulator transition in VO2 crystal film

Abstract

Insulator to metal phase transitions driven by external electric field are one of the hottest topics in correlated oxide study. While this electric triggered phenomena always mixes the electric field switching effect and joule thermal effect together, which are difficult to clarify the intrinsic mechanism. In this paper, we investigate the dynamical process of voltage-triggered metal-insulator transition (MIT) in a VO2 crystal film and observe the temperature dependence of the threshold voltages and switching delay times, which can be explained quite well based on a straightforward joule thermal model. By conducting the voltage controlled infrared transmittance measurement, the delayed infrared transmission change is also observed, further confirming the homogeneous switching process for a large-size film. All of these results show strong evidences that joule thermal effect plays a dominated role in electric-field-induced switching of VO2 crystal.

Enhanced Phase Transition Properties of VO2 Thin Films on 6H-SiC (0001) Substrate Prepared by Pulsed Laser Deposition

“…The well-resolved sharp reflection at 35.64°, corresponds to a classic reflections from (0006)-oriented 6H-SiC (PDF#74-1302) substrate [18]. A unique M-phase (020) diffraction peak attributed to VO 2 at 39.93° was observed, consistent with the report by Liao et al [19]. No other VO 2 diffraction peaks were observed in the range of angles tested.…”

Non-thermal resistive switching in Mott insulator nanowires

“…Despite many studies, the switching mechanism is not yet understood. Even for the same materials, in some cases Joule heating is invoked, while in others non-thermal effects of the electric field may play an important role [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36] . In a few studies, field-assisted carrier generation has been invoked as a possible driving mechanism for this non-thermal IMT, but no clear evidence linking the two phenomena was shown.…”

Role of the lattice in the light-induced insulator-to-metal transition in vanadium dioxide

“…The involvement of the lattice is detrimental for ultrafast switching, as it is typically associated with slow response and high power consumption. In this context, the lattice acts as a dissipation bath (thermal reservoir) that prevents a reversible transition between the metallic and insulating phases [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]. Moreover, the nature of the MIT in VO 2 has long been debated, with particular emphasis placed on the role of electron correlations in forming the charge gap [20][21][22][23].…”