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Vanadium dioxide (VO$_2$) is a strongly-correlated material that exhibitsinsulator-to-metal transition (IMT) near room temperature, which makes it apromising candidate for applications in nanophotonics or optoelectronics.However, creating VO$_2$ nanostructures with the desired functionality can bechallenging due to microscopic inhomogeneities that can significantly impactthe local optical and electronic properties. Thin lamellas, produced by focusedion beam milling from a homogeneous layer, provide a useful prototype forstudying VO$_2$ at the truly microscopic level using a scanning transmissionelectron microscope (STEM). High-resolution imaging is used to identifystructural inhomogeneities while electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS)supported by statistical analysis helps to detect V$_x$O$_y$ stoichiometrieswith a reduced oxidation number of vanadium at the areas of thickness below 70nm. On the other hand, the thicker areas are dominated by vanadium dioxide,where the signatures of IMT are detected in both core-loss and low-loss EELSexperiments with in-situ heating. The experimental results are interpreted withab-initio and semi-classical calculations. This work shows that structuralinhomogeneities such as pores and cracks present no harm to the desired opticalproperties of VO$_2$ samples.

Analytical electron microscopy analysis of insulating and metallic phases in nanostructured vanadium dioxide