Wafer-scale growth of VO2 thin films using a combinatorial approach

Nat Commun. 2015 Oct 9:6:8475. doi: 10.1038/ncomms9475.

Abstract

Transition metal oxides offer functional properties beyond conventional semiconductors. Bridging the gap between the fundamental research frontier in oxide electronics and their realization in commercial devices demands a wafer-scale growth approach for high-quality transition metal oxide thin films. Such a method requires excellent control over the transition metal valence state to avoid performance deterioration, which has been proved challenging. Here we present a scalable growth approach that enables a precise valence state control. By creating an oxygen activity gradient across the wafer, a continuous valence state library is established to directly identify the optimal growth condition. Single-crystalline VO2 thin films have been grown on wafer scale, exhibiting more than four orders of magnitude change in resistivity across the metal-to-insulator transition. It is demonstrated that 'electronic grade' transition metal oxide films can be realized on a large scale using a combinatorial growth approach, which can be extended to other multivalent oxide systems.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.