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Broad Range Tuning of Phase Transition Property in VO 2 Through Metal‐Ceramic Nanocomposite Design
Author(s) -
Jian Jie,
Wang Xuejing,
Misra Shikhar,
Sun Xing,
Qi Zhimin,
Gao Xingyao,
Sun Jianing,
Donohue Andrea,
Lin Daw Gen,
Pol Vilas,
Youngblood Jeffrey,
Wang Han,
Li Leigang,
Huang Jijie,
Wang Haiyan
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.201903690
Subject(s) - materials science , nanocomposite , phase transition , ceramic , hysteresis , dielectric , phase (matter) , metal–insulator transition , variable range hopping , nanotechnology , atmospheric temperature range , condensed matter physics , composite material , optoelectronics , metal , thermal conduction , thermodynamics , metallurgy , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry
Vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) is a well‐studied Mott‐insulator because of the very abrupt physical property switching during its semiconductor‐to‐metal transition (SMT) around 341 K (68 °C). In this work, through novel oxide‐metal nanocomposite designs (i.e., Au:VO 2 and Pt:VO 2 ), a very broad range of SMT temperature tuning from ≈ 323.5 to ≈ 366.7 K has been achieved by varying the metallic secondary phase in the nanocomposites (i.e., Au:VO 2 and Pt:VO 2 thin films, respectively). More surprisingly, the SMT T c can be further lowered to ≈ 301.8 K (near room temperature) by reducing the Au particle size from 11.7 to 1.7 nm. All the VO 2 nanocomposite thin films maintain superior phase transition performance, i.e., large transition amplitude, very sharp transition, and narrow width of thermal hysteresis. Correspondingly, a twofold variation of the complex dielectric function has been demonstrated in these metal‐VO 2 nanocomposites. The wide range physical property tuning is attributed to the band structure reconstruction at the metal‐VO 2 phase boundaries. This demonstration paved a novel approach for tuning the phase transition property of Mott‐insulating materials to near room temperature transition, which is important for sensors, electrical switches, smart windows, and actuators.