Current induced polycrystalline-to-crystalline transformation in vanadium dioxide nanowires

Vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) exhibits a reversible insulator-metal phase transition that is of significant interest in energy-efficient nanoelectronic and nanophotonic devices. In these applications, crystalline materials are usually preferred for their superior electrical transport characteristics as w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-11, Vol.6 (1), p.37296-37296, Article 37296
Main Authors: Jeong, Junho, Yong, Zheng, Joushaghani, Arash, Tsukernik, Alexander, Paradis, Suzanne, Alain, David, Poon, Joyce K. S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
142/126
639/301/1005/1007
639/301/930/1032
639/925/927/1021
Crystallinity
Diffraction
Electron microscopy
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Nanotechnology
Nanowires
Phase transitions
Science
Temperature effects
Vanadium
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Summary:Vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) exhibits a reversible insulator-metal phase transition that is of significant interest in energy-efficient nanoelectronic and nanophotonic devices. In these applications, crystalline materials are usually preferred for their superior electrical transport characteristics as well as spatial homogeneity and low surface roughness over the device area for reduced scattering. Here, we show applied electrical currents can induce a permanent reconfiguration of polycrystalline VO 2 nanowires into crystalline nanowires, resulting in a dramatically reduced hysteresis across the phase transition and reduced resistivity. Low currents below 3 mA were sufficient to cause the local temperature in the VO 2 to reach about 1780 K to activate the irreversible polycrystalline-to-crystalline transformation. The crystallinity was confirmed by electron microscopy and diffraction analyses. This simple yet localized post-processing of insulator-metal phase transition materials may enable new methods of studying and fabricating nanoscale structures and devices formed from these materials.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep37296