Mesoscopic Metal−Insulator Transition at Ferroelastic Domain Walls in VO2

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Alexander Tselev ; Vincent Meunier ; Evgheni Strelcov ; William A. Shelton Jr. ; Igor A. Luk’yanchuk ; Keith Jones ; Roger Proksch ; Andrei Kolmakov ; Sergei V. Kalinin
• 刊名：ACS Nano
• 出版年：2010
• 出版时间：August 24, 2010
• 年：2010
• 卷：4
• 期：8
• 页码：4412-4419
• 全文大小：370K
• 年卷期：0
• ISSN：1936-086X

文摘

The novel phenomena induced by symmetry breaking at homointerfaces between ferroic variants in ferroelectric and ferroelastic materials have attracted recently much attention. Using variable temperature scanning microwave microscopy, we demonstrate the mesoscopic strain-induced metal−insulator phase transitions in the vicinity of ferroelastic domain walls in the semiconductive VO₂ that nucleated at temperatures as much as 10−12 °C below bulk transition, resulting in the formation of conductive channels in the material. Density functional theory is used to rationalize the process low activation energy. This behavior, linked to the strain inhomogeneity inherent in ferroelastic materials, can strongly affect interpretation of phase-transition studies in VO₂ and similar materials with symmetry-lowering transitions, and can also be used to enable new generations of electronic devices though strain engineering of conductive and semiconductive regions.