Dielectric and carrier transport properties of vanadium dioxide thin films across the phase transition utilizing gated capacitor devices

Abstract

Vanadium dioxide (VO(2)) is a strongly correlated oxide that undergoes a sharp metal-insulator transition (MIT) in the vicinity of room temperature. Fundamental knowledge of the semiconducting properties of thin film VO(2) is needed to advance our understanding of the microscopic transition mechanisms that are presently being actively explored and also for novel electron devices that could utilize the phase transition. In this report, the temperature dependence of the dielectric constant and carrier conduction in VO(2) thin films are investigated, from quantitative capacitance-voltage analyses of a multilayer capacitor with HfO(2)/VO(2)/HfO(2)/n-Si-substrate stack structure. The finite conductance of the VO(2) in the capacitor structure is taken into account in the impedance transformations to obtain material properties as a function of temperature. The dielectric constant of VO(2) increases from a value of similar to 36 at room temperature to a value exceeding 6 x 104 at 100 degrees C. The carrier type of VO(2) thin film is electronic, determined by the polarity of the capacitance-voltage spectra. The electron carrier concentration of the VO(2) thin films shows about four orders of magnitude increase from room temperature to the temperature near phase transition. The approach of deriving insights into carrier c