Fabrication of CMOS-compatible abrupt electronic switches based on vanadium dioxide

Graphical abstractDisplay Omitted We grow high-quality VO2 on SiO2/Si substrates by RF sputtering of a V target.We show the effect of optimizing the O2 flow on the quality of the VO2 film.We propose a CMOS-compatible process for VO2 abrupt electronic switches.The fabricated switches show a record resistance ratio (825) on SiO2/Si substrates. Vanadium dioxide thin films were deposited on amorphous SiO2-coated Si substrates, by reactive magnetron sputtering at 490?C of a pure vanadium target. The deposition parameters were optimized in order to maximize the resistivity modulation due to the metal-insulator transition. The best results were obtained working at an operating pressure of 2?10-3 mbar, a constant argon flow of 12.5 sccm and a starting oxygen flow of 2.41 sccm with a feedback control to keep constant the oxygen partial pressure in the sputtering chamber. This allowed to observe for the first time an electrically induced metal-insulator transition with a resistance ratio as high as 824.8 for sputtered VO2 on SiO2/Si substrates.

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