Modulating charge transport via 2 MeV He+ irradiation in VO2
Abstract
Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is of interest for adaptive electronic applications such as neuromorphic neuristor devices and variable emissivity or tunable thermal control materials, thanks to its key property—a metal–insulator transition (MIT) at 68 °C that is accompanied by a dramatic change in electrical and optical properties. To improve performance in these roles, it is critical to develop approaches to engineer transport properties and the MIT behavior. While many documented techniques exist to modulate the MIT and film resistivities via lattice strain and chemical doping, less is known about the effects of ion irradiation on the intrinsic properties of VO2, despite the ability to control the spatial distribution of irradiation beams and the prevalence of high energy ion implantation in the semiconductor industry. The impact of irradiation of different acceleration energies on the responses of VO2 is of specific interest, as charged particle energy generally impacts both the resulting defect profile and corresponding transport behavior. Here, we demonstrate that 2 MeV He ions at equivalent calculated displacements per atom, in two different types of films, can create remarkable changes to the nature of charge transport in VO2, especially in the low-temperature insulating phase. Simulation of resulting changes in electrical conductivity reveals that He ion irradiation offers a strategy to increase both oscillation frequency and the signal transmission. These results provide insights into the intentional design of defect populations to modulate transport for neuromorphic VO2 devices.
Article Details
Journal Info
Journal of Applied Physics
American Institute of Physics
Authors (20)
Rebeca M. Gurrola
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University 1 , College Station, Texas 77843,
Adelaide Bradicich
Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories 2 , Albuquerque, New Mexico 87123,
Fatme Jardali
Department of Materials Science and Engineering
John M. Cain
Sandia National Laboratories 3 , Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185,
Timothy D. Brown
Sandia National Laboratories 4 , Livermore, California 94550,
Jenny L. Chong
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University 1 , College Station, Texas 77843,
John Ponis
Department of Chemistry
Sangheon Oh
Sandia National Laboratories 4 , Livermore, California 94550,
Ryan M. Schoell
Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories 2 , Albuquerque, New Mexico 87123,
Digvijay R. Yadav
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University 1 , College Station, Texas 77843,
Jiaqi Dong
Xi’an Key Laboratory of Hybrid Luminescent Materials and Photonic Device, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering
Christopher M. Smyth
Sandia National Laboratories 3 , Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185,
Matt Pharr
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University 6 , College Station, Texas 77843,
Suhas Kumar
Sandia National Laboratories 4 , Livermore, California 94550,
Kelvin Xie
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Texas A&M University 1 , College Station, Texas 77843,
Sarbajit Banerjee
Laboratory for Inorganic Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, ETH Zurich, Vladimir-Prelog-Weg 2, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
Khalid Hattar
A. Alec Talin
Sandia National Laboratories 4 , Livermore, California 94550,
Tzu-Ming Lu
Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Sandia National Laboratories 2 , Albuquerque, New Mexico 87123,
Patrick J. Shamberger
Department of Materials Science and Engineering