Controlled reactive HiPIMS—effective technique for low-temperature (300 °C) synthesis of VO2 films with semiconductor-to-metal transition

Abstract

Reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering with a pulsed O2 flow control and to-substrate O2 injection into a high-density plasma in front of the sputtered vanadium target was used for low-temperature (300 °C) deposition of VO2 films with a pronounced semiconductor-to-metal transition onto conventional soda-lime glass substrates without any substrate bias voltage and without any interlayer. The depositions were performed using an unbalanced magnetron with a planar target of 50.8 mm diameter in argon–oxygen gas mixtures at the argon pressure of 1 Pa. The deposition-averaged target power density was close to 13 W cm−2 at a fixed duty cycle of 1% with a peak target power density up to 5 kW cm−2 during voltage pulses ranged from 40 µs to 100 µs. A high modulation of the transmittance at 2500 nm (between 51% and 8% at the film thickness of 88 nm) and the electrical resistivity (changed 350 times) at the transition temperature of 56–57 °C was achieved for the VO2 films synthesized using 50 µs voltage pulses when the crystallization of the thermochromic VO2(M1) phase was supported by the high-energy (up to 50 eV relative to ground potential) ions. Principles of this effective low-temperature deposition technique with a high application potential are presented.