Abrupt resistivity decrease and other unexpected phenomena in a doped amorphous ternary metal oxide

Abstract

The phenomenon of insulator-metal transition introduced in amorphous binary gallium oxide as discussed by Nagarajan et al. [Nature Mater. 7, 391 (2008)] is demonstrated to be also achievable in an amorphous ternary metal oxide system. The annealing method used in amorphous binary gallium oxide is not applicable to the ternary system. A different approach, aluminum incorporation in amorphous indium zinc oxide (IZO), is adopted in achieving insulator-metal transition or sharp resistance decrease in the amorphous ternary oxide. In addition to sharp resistance decrease, some other unexpected phenomena, such as different partial crystallization, are also reported.