Growth and Electrical Properties of Vanadium-Dioxide Thin Films Fabricated by Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Single crystalline vanadium-dioxide (VO2) thin lms on sapphire (0001) have been grown by using a radio-frequency (rf) magnetron sputtering technique. The dependences of the resistivity change and the hysteresis width of the VO2 thin lms on the oxygen ow ratio [= O2 100 Ar+O2 (%)] at a xed deposition temperature of 550 C have been studied. The VO2 lm grown at an oxygen ow ratio of 3.85 % showed a metal-to-insulator transition around 65 C with a resistivity ratio as high as 4.3 103 and a hysteresis width of 6 C. Moreover, the VO2 lm, thermally cycled of up to 100 times across the transition temperature, was found to be stable; i.e., no noticeable changes in the magnitude of the resistivity and in the shape of the hysteresis curve were observed.