| Hem > Metal-insulator transition in crystalline V$_2$O$_3$ thin films probed at atomic-scale using emission Mössbauer spectroscopy |
| Article | |
| Title | Metal-insulator transition in crystalline V$_2$O$_3$ thin films probed at atomic-scale using emission Mössbauer spectroscopy |
| Author(s) | Qi, B (Iceland U.) ; Gunnlaugsson, H P (Iceland U.) ; Ólafsson, S (Iceland U.) ; Gislason, H P (Iceland U.) ; Thorsteinsson, E B (Iceland U.) ; Arnalds, U B (Iceland U.) ; Mantovan, R (CNR-IMM, Catania) ; Unzueta l, I (Basque U., Bilbao) ; Zyabkin, D V (Ilmenau Tech. U.) ; Bharuth Ram, K (KwaZulu Natal U. ; DUT, Durban) ; Johnston, K (CERN) ; Krastev, P B (Sofiya, Inst. Nucl. Res.) ; Mølholt, T E (CERN) ; Masenda, H (Witwatersrand U.) ; Tarazaga Martín-Luengo, A (Linz U.) ; Naidoo, D (Witwatersrand U.) ; Schell, J (CERN ; U. Duisburg-Essen) |
| Publication | 2020 |
| In: | Thin Solid Films 714 (2020) 138389 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.tsf.2020.138389 |
| Subject category | Detectors and Experimental Techniques |
| Abstract | 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. |
| Copyright/License | publication: © Elsevier B.V. |