Substrate-mediated strain effect on the role of thermal heating and electric field on metal-insulator transition in vanadium dioxide nanobeams

Single-crystalline vanadium dioxide (VO2) nanostructures have recently attracted great attention because of their single domain metal-insulator transition (MIT) nature that differs from a bulk sample. The VO2 nanostructures can also provide new opportunities to explore, understand and ultimately engineer MIT properties for applications of novel functional devices. Importantly, the MIT properties of the VO2 nanostructures are significantly affected by stoichiometry, doping, size effect, defects and in particular, strain. Here, we report the effect of substrate-mediated strain on the correlative role of thermal heating and electric field on the MIT in the VO2 nanobeams by altering the strength of the substrate attachment. Our study may provide helpful information on controlling the properties of VO2 nanobeam for the device applications by changing temperature and voltage with a properly engineered strain.