Unravelling the switching mechanisms in electric field induced insulator–metal transitions in VO2 nanobeams

Abstract

We studied insulator–metal transitions in VO2 nanobeams for both abrupt and gradual changes in applied electric fields. Based on the observations, the Poole–Frenkel effect explained the abrupt transition, while the gradual case is found to be dominated by the Joule heating phenomenon. We also carried out power model and finite element method based simulations which supported the Joule heating phenomena for gradual transition. An in-principle demonstration of the Poole–Frenkel effect, performed using a square voltage pulse of 1 µs duration, further confirms the proposed insulator–metal transition mechanism with a switching time in the order of 100 ns. Finally, conductivity variations introduced via rapid thermal annealing at various temperatures validate the roles of both Joule heating and Poole–Frenkel mechanisms in the transitions.