Enhanced Metal–Insulator Transition in Freestanding VO2 Down to 5 nm Thickness

• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c01581
• Publication Date: 2021-04-01T16:39:41Z
• Authors: Kun Han; Liang Wu; Yu Cao; Hanyu Wang; Chen Ye; Ke Huang; M. Motapothula; Hongna Xing; Xinghua Li; Dong-Chen Qi; Xiao Li; X. Renshaw Wang
• Keywords: Flexible Electronics

Ultrathin freestanding membranes with a pronounced metal-insulator transition (MIT) provides huge potential in future flexible electronic applications as well unique aspect of the study lattice-electron interplay. However, reduction thickness to an ultrathin region (a few nm) is typically detrimental MIT epitaxial films, and even catastrophic for their form. Here, we report enhanced VO2-based membranes, lateral size up millimetres VO2 down 5 nm. The VO2-membranes were detached by dissolving Sr3Al2O6 sacrificial layer between thin film c-Al2O3(0001) substrate, allowing transfer onto arbitrary surfaces. Furthermore, VO2-membrane was greatly inserting intermediate Al2O3 buffer layer. In comparison best available VO2-membranes, enhancement over 400% at nm more than one order magnitude above 10 Our widens spectrum functionality large-scale enables integration into electronics photonics.