Substrate-mediated strain effect on the role of thermal heating and electric field on metal-insulator transition in vanadium dioxide nanobeams

Abstract

Single-crystalline vanadium dioxide (VO 2) nanostructures have recently attracted great attention because of their single domain metal-insulator transition (MIT) nature that differs from a bulk sample. The VO 2 nanostructures can also provide new opportunities to explore, understand, and ultimately engineer MIT properties for applications of novel functional devices. Importantly, the MIT properties of the VO 2 nanostructures are significantly affected by stoichiometry, doping, size effect, defects, and in particular, strain. Here, we report the effect of substrate-mediated strain on the correlative role of thermal heating and electric field on the MIT in the VO 2 nanobeams by altering the strength of the substrate attachment. Our study may provide helpful information on controlling the properties of VO 2 nanobeam for the device applications by changing temperature and voltage with a properly engineered strain.