• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.19.1-19.1
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• 2011

We report on the metal-insulator transition that occurs as a function of film thickness in ultrathin $La_{0.75}Sr_{0.25}VO_3$ films. The metal-insulator transition displays a critical thickness of 5 unit cell. Above the critical thickness, metallic films exhibit a temperature driven metal-insulator transition with weak localization behavior. With decreasing film thickness, oxygen octahedron rotation in the films increases, causing enhanced electron-electron correlation. The electron-electron correlations in ultrathin films induce the transition from metal to insulator in addition to Anderson localization.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.25 no.7
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• pp.959-964
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• 2004

A low-dimensional metal frequently exhibits a metal-insulator transition through a charge-density-wave (CDW) or a spin-density-wave (SDW) which accompany it's structural changes. The transition temperature is thought to be determined by the amount of energy produced during the transition process and the softness of the original structure. $AMo_4O_6$ (A=K, Sn) are known to be quasi-one dimensional metals which exhibit metalinsulator transitions. The difference of the transition temperatures between $KMo_4O_6$ and $SnMo_4O_6$ (A=K, Sn) is examined by investigating their electronic and structural properties. Fermi surface nesting area and the lattice softness are the governing factors to determine the metal-insulator transition temperature in $AMo_4O_6$ compounds.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.26-30
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• 2014

A Compensation-type fire detector (CFD) is operated with two functions of a differential-temperature detector and as a fixed-temperature detector. The differential-temperature detector observes a rate of temperature increase, and the fixed-temperature detector measures a given fixed temperature. The differential-temperature detector does not observe the outbreak of fire in slowly increasing temperature conditions, whereas the fixed-temperature detector is not able to observe the outbreak of fire in conditions under predetermined temperature level. We developed a CFD to compensate for weaknesses of both detectors. To compensate for the disadvantages, a sensor of the sensor metal-insulator-transition critical-temperature sensor was used. Temperature coefficient of resistance is the sensitivity for sensor. At $55^{\circ}C$, temperature coefficient of resistance of metal-insulator-transition critical-temperature sensor was 14.15%. Temperature coefficient of resistance of thermistor was about 0.5%. This CFD was operated as two ways that fixed-temperature detector and differential-temperature detector in one sensor.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.572-572
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• 2012

Growth of metal oxides on graphene may lead to a better understanding of delicate effects of their growth habits on their underlying physics. The vanadium dioxide ($VO_2$) is well known for its metal-to-insulator transition accompanied by a reversible first order structural phase transition at 340 K. This transition makes $VO_2$ a potentially useful material for applications in electrical and optical devices. We report a successful growth of $VO_2$ nanostructures on a graphene substrate via a vapor-solid transport route. As-grown $VO_2$ nanostructures on graphene were systematically characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. These results indicate that the strain between $VO_2$ and graphene layers may be easily controlled by the number of underlying graphene layer. We also found that the strain in-between $VO_2$ and graphene layer affected its metal-to-insulator transition characteristics. This study demonstrates a new way for synthesizing $VO_2$ in a desired phase on the transparent conducting graphene substrate and an easy pathway for controlling metal-to-insulator phase transition via strain.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
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• 2011.10a
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• pp.19.2-19.2
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• 2011

The $(Sr_{0.75},\;La_{0.25})TiO_3$ (SLTO) ultra-thin films with various thicknesses have been grown on Ti-O terminated $SrTiO_3$(100) substrate using Laser-Molecular Beam Epitaxy (Laser MBE). By monitoring the in-situ specular spot intensity oscillation of reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED), we controlled the layer-by-layer film growth. The film structure and topography were verified by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and high resolution thin film x-ray diffraction by the synchrotron x-ray radiation. We have also investigated the electronic band structure using x-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). The ultra thin SLTO film exhibits thickness driven metal-insulator transition around 8 unit cell thickness when the film thickness progressively reduced to 2 unit cell. The SLTO thin films with an insulating character showed band splitting in Ti $L_3-L_2$ edge XAS spectrum which is attributed to Ti 3d band splitting. This narrow d band splitting could drive the metal-insulator transition along with Anderson Localization. In optical conductivity, we have found the spectral weight transfer from coherent part to incoherent part when the film thickness was reduced. This result indicates the possibility of enhanced electron correlation in ultra thin films.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.573-573
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• 2012

High quality $VO_2$ thin films were successfully grown on GaN substrate by optimizing oxygen partial pressure during the growth using RF sputtering technique. The $VO_2$ thin film grown on GaN substrate exhibited an unusual metal insulator transition behavior, which was known to be observed only either in doped sample or under uniaxial stress. Raman spectra also confirmed that metal insulator transition occurred from monoclinic M1 to rutile R phase via monoclinic M2 phase with increasing temperature. We believe that large lattice mismatch between $VO_2$ and GaN substrate may cause M2 phase to be thermodynamically stable. Optical transmittance and its electrical switching behavior were carefully investigated to elucidate the underlying physics of its metal insulator transition behavior. This study may lead to a unique opportunity to better understand the growth mechanism of M2 phase dominant $VO_2$ thin films.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.424.1-424.1
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• 2014

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is a strongly correlated oxide exhibiting a first-order metal-insulator transition (MIT) that is accompanied by a structural phase transition from a low temperature monoclinic phase to a high-temperature rutile phase. VO2 has attracted significant attention because of a variety of possible applications based on its ultrafast MIT. Interestingly, the transition nature of VO2 is significantly affected by stress due to doping and/or interaction with a substrate and/or surface tension as well as defects. Accordingly, there have been considerable efforts to understand the influences of such factors on the phase transition and the fundamental mechanisms behind the MIT behavior. Here, we present the influences of oxygen deficiency, hydrogen doping, and substrate-induced stress on MIT phenomena in single-crystalline VO2 nanobeams. Specifically, the work function and the electrical resistance of the VO2 nanobeams change with the compositional variation due to the oxygen-deficiency-related defects. In addition, the VO2 nanobeams during exposure to hydrogen gas exhibit the reduction of transition temperature and the complex phase inhomogenieties arising from both substrate-induced stress and the formation of the hydrogen doping-induced metallic rutile phase.

• Current Optics and Photonics
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• v.6 no.6
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• pp.583-589
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• 2022

Vanadium dioxide (VO₂) is a well-known material that undergoes insulator-to-metal phase transition near room temperature. Since the conductivity of VO₂ changes several orders of magnitude in the terahertz (THz) spectral range during the phase transition, VO₂-based active metamaterials have been extensively studied. Experimentally, it is reported that the metal nanostructures on the VO₂ thin film lowers the critical temperature significantly compared to the bare film. Here, we theoretically studied such early transition phenomena by developing an analytical model. Unlike experimental work that only measures transmission, we calculate the reflection and absorption and demonstrate that the role of absorption is quite different for bare and patterned samples; the absorption gradually increases for bare film during the phase transition, while an absorption peak is observed at the critical temperature for the metamaterials. In addition, we also discuss the gap width and VO₂ thickness effects on the transition temperatures.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.1393-1398
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• 2018

We have investigated Bernal-stacked tetralayer graphene as a function of interlayer distance and perpendicular electric field by using density functional theory calculations. The low-energy band structure was found to be very sensitive to the interlayer distance, undergoing a metal-insulator transition. It can be attributed to the nearest-layer coupling that is more sensitive to the interlayer distance than are the next-nearest-layer couplings. Under a perpendicular electric field above a critical field, six electric-field-induced Dirac cones with mass gaps predicted in tight-binding models were confirmed, however, our density functional theory calculations demonstrate a phase transition to a quantum valley Hall insulator, contrasting to the tight-binding model prediction of an ordinary insulator.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1577-1582
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• 2018

While controlling the cation contents in perovskite rare-earth nickelate thin films, a metal-to-insulator phase transition is reported. Systematic control of cation stoichiometry has been achieved by manipulating the irradiation of excimer laser in pulsed laser deposition. Two rare-earth nickelate bilayer thin-film heterostructures with the controlled cation stoichiometry (i.e. stoichiometric and Ni-excessive) have been fabricated. It is found that the Ni-excessive nickelate film is structurally less dense than the stoichiometric film, albeit both of them are epitaxial and coherent with respect to the underlying substrate. More interestingly, as a temperature decreases, a metal-to-insulator transition is only observed in the Ni-excessive nickelate films, which can be associated with the enhanced disproportionation of the Ni charge valence. Based on our theoretical results, possible origins (e.g. anti-site defects) of the low-temperature insulating state are discussed with the need of future work for deeper understanding. Our work can be utilized to realize unusual physical phenomena (e.g. metal-to-insulator phase transitions) in complex oxide films by manipulating the chemical stoichiometry in pulsed laser deposition.