Origin of the current-driven breakdown in vanadium oxides: Thermal versus electronic

Abstract

We report the existence of two competing mechanisms in the current-driven electrical breakdown of vanadium sesquioxide (V 2 O 3) and vanadium dioxide (VO 2) nanodevices. Our experiments and simulations show that the competition between a purely-electronic mechanism (PE) and an electro-thermal (ET) mechanism, suppressed in nanoscale devices, explains the current driven insulator-to-metal phase transition (IMT). We find that the relative contribution of PE and ET effects is dictated by thermal coupling and resistivity, a discovery which disambiguates a long-standing controversy surrounding the physical nature of the current-driven IMT in vanadium oxides. Furthermore, we show that the electro-thermally driven IMT occurs through a nanoscopic surface-confined filament. This nano-confined filament has a very large thermal gradient, thus generating a large Seebeckeffect electric field.

Non-thermal resistive switching in Mott insulator nanowires

“…The collapse, extending well into the IMT, shows that electrical switching in this VO 2 nanowire can be accounted for solely by Joule heating. These findings are consistent with most previous reports which suggest that Joule heating plays a dominant role in the electrically induced IMT in VO 2 21,30,39,40 . The large jumps in the last section of some R(T wire ) curves are attributable to thermal runaway effects due to a current surge in the nanowire (see Supplementary Note 3 and footnote 1).…”

“…In materials where the IMT takes place as a function of temperature, such as VO 2 and V 2 O 3 , Joule heating due to current flow is an obvious candidate for triggering the transition. It has been argued, however, that the electric field applied in this process may induce the IMT non-thermally, without heating the material to its IMT temperature (T IMT ) [21][22][23][24][25][26][27] . Despite many studies, the switching mechanism is not yet understood.…”

“…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

“…Correlated electron systems offer various pathways of controlling material properties. For example, vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) is an insulator with strong electron-phonon interactions and it undergoes a first-order insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) at 340 K [1][2][3][4]. At higher temperatures, VO 2 is metallic with the rutile structure (R), while it transforms to the monoclinic M 1 phase and becomes insulating below the transition temperature.…”

Temperature effect on structural and optical properties of V2O5 thin films prepared by spray pyrolysis technique

“…Due to their permanent structural flexibility combined with their chemical and physical properties,Vanadium oxides have recently been the subject of much [1,2]. Because of their permanent structural flexibility associated with their chemical and physical properties.…”