Open AccessTunable Electrical Properties of Vanadium Oxide by Hydrogen-Plasma-Treated Atomic Layer Deposition
Author(s) -
Helen Hejin Park,
Thomas J. Larrabee,
Laura B. Ruppalt,
James C. Culbertson,
S. M. Prokes
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
acs omega
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.779
H-Index - 40
ISSN - 2470-1343
DOI - 10.1021/acsomega.7b00059
Subject(s) - atomic layer deposition , materials science , plasma , hydrogen , optoelectronics , oxide , vanadium oxide , vanadium , nanotechnology , analytical chemistry (journal) , thin film , metallurgy , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , chromatography , quantum mechanics
In this study, a plasma-modified process was developed to control the electrical properties of atomic layer deposition (ALD)-grown vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ), which is potentially useful for applications such as resistive switching devices, bolometers, and plasmonic metamaterials. By inserting a plasma pulse with varying H 2 gas flow into each ALD cycle, the insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) temperature of postdeposition-annealed crystalline VO 2 films was adjusted from 63 to 78 °C. Film analyses indicate that the tunability may arise from changes in grain boundaries, morphology, and compositional variation despite hydrogen not remaining in the annealed VO 2 films. This growth method, which enables a systematic variation of the electronic behavior of VO 2 , provides capabilities beyond those of the conventional thermal ALD and plasma-enhanced ALD.