The effect of Argon pressure dependent V thin film on the phase transition process of (020) VO2 thin film

It has been proved challenging to fabricate the single crystal orientation of VO2 thin film by a simple method. Based on chemical reaction thermodynamic and crystallization analysis theory, combined with our experimental results, we find out that when stoichiometric number of metallic V in the chemical equation is the same, the ratio of metallic V thin film surface average roughness R-a to thin film average particle diameter d decreases with the decreasing sputtering Argon pressure. Meanwhile, the oxidation reaction equilibrium constant K also decreases, which will lead to the increases of oxidation time, thereby the crystal orientation of the VO2 thin film will also become more uniform. By sputtering oxidation coupling method, metallic V thin film is deposited on c-sapphire substrate at 1 x 10(-1) Pa, and then oxidized in the air with the maximum oxidation time of 65s, high oriented (020) VO2 thin film has been fabricated successfully, which exhibits similar to 4.6 orders sheet resistance change across the metal-insulator transition. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier B.V.