Preparation and characteristic of phase transition vanadium oxide thin films by rapid thermal process

Metal-insulator phase transition VOX thin film is fabricated on a Si 100 substrate after the metal V thin film, prepared by direct current facing targets magnetron sputtering has been rapidly thermally treated first in pure oxygen environment and then in pure nitrogen environment. The thermal treatment conditions are 430℃/40 s, 450℃/40 s, 470℃/40 s, 450℃/30 s, 450℃/50 s in pure oxygen environment and 500℃/15 s in pure nitrogen environment. XRD, XPS, AFM and SEM are imployed to analyze the crystalline structure, valentstate and the components, morphology of the thin film. The electrical and optical characteristic of the thin film are analyzed by the Four-point probe method and THz time domain spectrum technology. Results reveal that after 450℃/40 s rapid thermal treatment in pure oxygen environment the metal V thin film turns into VOX thin film which has low properties of phase transition. Before and after heating, the change of resistivity reaches 2 orders of magnitude and the range of the THz transmission intensity shows smooth change. In order to improve the properties of phase transition, the VOX thin film is treated by 500℃/15 s rapid thermal process in pure nitrogen environment. After that, we find that the thin film shows a good phase transition performance, accompanied by a sheet square resistance drop of above 3 orders of magnitude and a 56.33% reduction in THz transmission intensity.