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

Eugene Freeman, Greg Stone, Nikhil Shukla, Hanjong Paik, Jarrett A. Moyer, Zhonghou Cai, Haidan Wen, Roman Engel-Herbert, Darrell G. Schlom, Venkatraman Gopalan, Suman Datta

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

35 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number263109
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume103
Issue number26
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 23 2013

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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