In this study, an electronic device based on a vanadium dioxide (VO₂) heterostructure thin film grown on an aluminum nitride(AlN)/silicon(Si) substrate was fabricated to realize high-repetition-rate current switching controlled by the photothermal effect. In the conventional VO₂/sapphire(Al₂O₃) device, the current switching controlled by the photothermal effect takes a long time for the cooling process to return the device to the off-state. This problem made high-repetition-rate switching impossible. On the other hand, it was assumed that the VO₂/AlN/Si device would be suitable for high-repetition-rate switching because it has a higher critical temperature and superior thermal conductivity than the VO₂/Al₂O₃ device. And, we demonstrated the photothermally-controlled current switching with a repetition rate of up to 60㎐ while maintaining a high on-state current of 50㎃ using an optimized experimental setup and anewly fabricated device. The switching response time was also improved to 1ms level.
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