Recent progresses on physics and applications of vanadium dioxide

As a strongly correlated electron material, vanadium dioxide (VO2) has been a focus of research since its discovery in 1959, owing to its well-known metal–insulator transition coupled with a structural phase transition. Recent years have witnessed both exciting discoveries in our understanding of the physics of VO2 and developments in new applications of VO2-related materials. In this article, we review some of these recent progresses on the phase transition mechanism and dynamics, phase diagrams, and imperfection effects, as well as growth and applications of VO2. Our review not only offers a summary of the properties and applications of VO2, but also provides insights into future research of this material by highlighting some of the challenges and opportunities.