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Metal-insulator transition in crystalline V$_2$O$_3$ thin films probed at atomic-scale using emission Mössbauer spectroscopy
Microscopic understanding the metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) in strongly correlated materials is critical to the design and control of modern “beyond silicon” Mott nanodevices. In this work, the local MIT behaviors in single crystalline V$_2$O$_3$ thin films were probed on an atomic scale by on...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Lenguaje: | eng |
Publicado: |
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tsf.2020.138389 http://cds.cern.ch/record/2800453 |
Sumario: | Microscopic understanding the metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) in strongly correlated materials is critical to
the design and control of modern “beyond silicon” Mott nanodevices. In this work, the local MIT behaviors in
single crystalline V$_2$O$_3$ thin films were probed on an atomic scale by online $^{57}$Fe emission Mössbauer spectroscopy (eMS) following dilute ($<10^{-3}$ at.%) implantation of $^{57}$Mn$^+$ (T$_{1/2}$ = 90 s). Both the epitaxial and the
textured V$_2$O$_3$ thin films grown by direct current magnetron sputtering were studied. Three structural components were resolved and identified in the eMS spectra with parameters characteristic of Fe in the 2+ valence
state, which are attributable to Fe in either lattice damage or structural defects and Fe in the intrinsic crystal
structure of V$_2$O$_3$, respectively. The results prove that the oxygen vacancies are common in the V$_2$O$_3$ thin films.
With co-existence of both the non-stoichiometry and epitaxial strain in the thin films, the epitaxial strain plays a
dominant role in controlling the global MIT properties of the film. The atomic scale structural transition captured
by the eMS affirms the early-stage dynamics of the MIT of V$_2$O$_3$ thin film reported previously. These results
approve the feasibility to tune the electronic transport of the V$_2$O$_3$ thin films for the next-generation Mott
nanodevices by the epitaxial strain via the sample growth parameters. |
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