Enhancement of thermal conductivity across the metal-insulator transition in vanadium dioxide

Abstract

Metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) in vanadium dioxide (VO2) was investigated by electrical and thermal transport measurements. We report an order-of-magnitude enhancement of thermal conductivity across the MIT region in the VO2 single crystal. The magnetic field dependent measurement reveals that the thermal conductivity peak does not show an obvious dependence on the magnetic field, which indicates that the enhancement of thermal conductivity could come from neutral heat carriers such as phonons. Our experiment provides a direction of achieving thermal management in phase-change materials.