High resolution Hall measurements across the VO2 metal-insulator transition reveal impact of spatial phase separation

Many strongly correlated transition metal oxides exhibit a metal-insulator transition (MIT), the manipulation of which is essential for their application as active device elements. However, such manipulation is hindered by lack of microscopic understanding of mechanisms involved in these transitions. A prototypical example is VO2, where previous studies indicated that the MIT resistance change correlate with changes in carrier density and mobility. We studied the MIT using Hall measurements with unprecedented resolution and accuracy, simultaneously with resistance measurements. Contrast to prior reports, we find that the MIT is not correlated with a change in mobility, but rather, is a macroscopic manifestation of the spatial phase separation which accompanies the MIT. Our results demonstrate that, surprisingly, properties of the nano-scale spatially-separated metallic and semiconducting domains actually retain their bulk properties. This study highlights the importance of taking into account local fluctuations and correlations when interpreting transport measurements in highly correlated systems.

[1]  L. Covaci,et al.  Field effect on surface states in a doped Mott-Insulator thin film , 2012, 1206.5492.

[2]  H. B. G. Casimir,et al.  On Onsager's Principle of Microscopic Reversibility , 1945 .

[3]  C. N. Berglund,et al.  Electronic Properties of V O 2 near the Semiconductor-Metal Transition , 1969 .

[4]  F. Keilmann,et al.  Inhomogeneous electronic state near the insulator-to-metal transition in the correlated oxide VO2 , 2009 .

[5]  Shriram Ramanathan,et al.  Hall carrier density and magnetoresistance measurements in thin-film vanadium dioxide across the metal-insulator transition , 2009, 1006.4376.

[6]  D. Bergman,et al.  Magnetotransport in conducting composite films with a disordered columnar microstructure and an in-plane magnetic field , 1999 .

[7]  A. Sharoni,et al.  Patterning of epitaxial VO2 microstructures by a high-temperature lift-off process , 2014 .

[8]  John B. Goodenough,et al.  The two components of the crystallographic transition in VO2 , 1971 .

[9]  P. Coleman,et al.  Hall-effect evolution across a heavy-fermion quantum critical point , 2004, Nature.

[10]  Stuart S. P. Parkin,et al.  Jaewoo Jeong Induced Oxygen Vacancy Formation − by Electric Field 2 Suppression of Metal-Insulator Transition in VO , 2014 .

[11]  L. Feldman,et al.  Two-dimensional current percolation in nanocrystalline vanadiumdioxide films , 2006 .

[12]  A. Dykhne.  Conductivity of a Two-dimensional Two-phase System , 1971 .

[13]  Dai,et al.  Hall effect in a three-dimensional percolation system. , 1987, Physical review. B, Condensed matter.

[14]  Charles T Rettner,et al.  Subnanosecond incubation times for electric-field-induced metallization of a correlated electron oxide. , 2014, Nature nanotechnology.

[15]  Ivan K Schuller,et al.  Role of thermal heating on the voltage induced insulator-metal transition in VO2. , 2013, Physical review letters.

[16]  G. Ma,et al.  Photoinduced insulator-metal phase transition and the metallic phase propagation in VO2 films investigated by time-resolved terahertz spectroscopy , 2013 .

[17]  X. Hong,et al.  Strain induced modulation of the correlated transport in epitaxial Sm0.5Nd0.5NiO3 thin films , 2015, Journal of physics. Condensed matter : an Institute of Physics journal.

[18]  P. Sheng,et al.  Theory and Simulations , 2003 .

[19]  T. M. Rice,et al.  Metal‐Insulator Transitions , 2003 .

[20]  Stuart S. P. Parkin,et al.  Control of the metal–insulator transition in vanadium dioxide by modifying orbital occupancy , 2013, Nature Physics.

[21]  Y. Shen,et al.  Ultrafast Vibrational Dynamics at Water Interfaces , 2006, Science.

[22]  H. Hwang,et al.  BASIC NOTIONS , 2022 .

[23]  M. Rozenberg,et al.  Taming the Mott Transition for a Novel Mott Transistor , 2008 .

[24]  M. Raschke,et al.  Inhomogeneity in the ultrafast insulator-to-metal transition dynamics in VO$_2$ , 2014, 1412.5495.

[25]  Oliver Paul,et al.  Reverse-magnetic-field reciprocity in conductive samples with extended contacts , 2008 .

[27]  L. Balents,et al.  Phase Separation in Doped Mott Insulators , 2014, 1407.0368.

[28]  F. J. Morin,et al.  Oxides Which Show a Metal-to-Insulator Transition at the Neel Temperature , 1959 .

[29]  D. Bergman,et al.  Discrete network models for the low-field Hall effect near a percolation threshold: Theory and simulations , 1990 .

[30]  Shriram Ramanathan,et al.  Correlated Electron Materials and Field Effect Transistors for Logic: A Review , 2012, 1212.2684.

[31]  Ivan K. Schuller,et al.  Resolving transitions in the mesoscale domain configuration in VO2 using laser speckle pattern analysis , 2014, Scientific reports.

[32]  A I Lichtenstein,et al.  Dynamical singlets and correlation-assisted Peierls transition in VO2. , 2005, Physical review letters.

[33]  Bin Liu,et al.  Comprehensive study of the metal-insulator transition in pulsed laser deposited epitaxial VO2 thin films , 2013 .

[34]  S. Stemmer,et al.  Correlation between stoichiometry, strain, and metal-insulator transitions of NdNiO3 films , 2015 .

[35]  Ivan K Schuller,et al.  Multiple avalanches across the metal-insulator transition of vanadium oxide nanoscaled junctions. , 2008, Physical review letters.

[36]  Yoshihiro Iwasa,et al.  Ambipolar insulator-to-metal transition in black phosphorus by ionic-liquid gating. , 2015, ACS nano.

[37]  J. Mannhart,et al.  Tunable Quasi-Two-Dimensional Electron Gases in Oxide Heterostructures , 2006, Science.

[38]  Byung-Gyu Chae,et al.  Mott Transition in VO2 Revealed by Infrared Spectroscopy and Nano-Imaging , 2007, Science.

[39]  Uchida,et al.  Superconductivity produced by electron doping in CuO2-layered compounds. , 1989, Physical review letters.

[40]  William Paul,et al.  Hall effect in VO$sub 2$ near the semiconductor-to-metal transition , 1973 .

[41]  Byung-Gyu Chae,et al.  Monoclinic and correlated metal phase in VO(2) as evidence of the Mott transition: coherent phonon analysis. , 2006, Physical review letters.

[42]  Robert C. Wolpert,et al.  A Review of the , 1985 .

[43]  L. J. V. D. Pauw.  A METHOD OF MEASURING SPECIFIC RESISTIVITY AND HALL EFFECT OF DISCS OF ARBITRARY SHAPE , 1991 .

[44]  O. Paul,et al.  How to Extract the Sheet Resistance and Hall Mobility From Arbitrarily Shaped Planar Four-Terminal Devices With Extended Contacts , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

[45]  M. Raschke,et al.  Inhomogeneity of the ultrafast insulator-to-metal transition dynamics of VO2 , 2015, Nature Communications.

[46]  Rolf Landauer,et al.  The Electrical Resistance of Binary Metallic Mixtures , 1952 .

[47]  Arun V. Thathachary,et al.  A steep-slope transistor based on abrupt electronic phase transition , 2015, Nature Communications.

[48]  H. Bechtel,et al.  Phase transition in bulk single crystals and thin films of VO2 by nano-infrared spectroscopy and imaging , 2015, 1506.04786.

[49]  Joyeeta Nag,et al.  Ultrafast phase transition via catastrophic phonon collapse driven by plasmonic hot-electron injection. , 2014, Nano letters.

[50]  Y. Avishai,et al.  Nature of the superconductor–insulator transition in disordered superconductors , 2007, Nature.

[51]  R. Mark Wilson,et al.  Metal–insulator transition in vanadium dioxide , 2009 .

[52]  Jeffrey F. DeNatale,et al.  Millimeter‐wave dielectric properties of epitaxial vanadium dioxide thin films , 1991 .

[53]  J. Åkerman,et al.  Impact of interfacial roughness on tunneling conductance and extracted barrier parameters , 2007 .

[54]  P. Sheng,et al.  Giant Hall effect in nonmagnetic granular metal films. , 2001, Physical review letters.

[55]  L. Fan,et al.  Control of the metal-insulator transition in VO₂ epitaxial film by modifying carrier density. , 2015, ACS applied materials & interfaces.

[56]  David J. Bergman,et al.  Physical Properties of Macroscopically Inhomogeneous Media , 1992 .