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Ultrathin freestanding membranes with a pronounced metal-insulator transition(MIT) provides huge potential in future flexible electronic applications aswell as a unique aspect of the study of lattice-electron interplay. However,the reduction of the thickness to an ultrathin region (a few nm) is typicallydetrimental to the MIT in epitaxial films, and even catastrophic for theirfreestanding form. Here, we report an enhanced MIT in VO2-based freestandingmembranes, with a lateral size up to millimetres and VO2 thickness down to 5nm. The VO2-membranes were detached by dissolving a Sr3Al2O6 sacrificial layerbetween the VO2 thin film and c-Al2O3(0001) substrate, allowing a transfer ontoarbitrary surfaces. Furthermore, the MIT in the VO2-membrane was greatlyenhanced by inserting an intermediate Al2O3 buffer layer. In comparison to thebest available ultrathin VO2-membranes, the enhancement of MIT is over 400% at5 nm VO2 thickness and more than one order of magnitude for VO2 above 10 nm.Our study widens the spectrum of functionality in ultrathin and large-scalemembranes, and enables the potential integration of MIT into flexibleelectronics and photonics.

Enhanced metal-insulator transition in freestanding VO2 down to 5 nm thickness