Reversible Current Switching Based on Near-Infrared Laser Pulses in VO₂/AlN Heterostructure Thin Film on Si Substrate

In this paper, we demonstrated a reversible current switching in a two-terminal device based on a vanadium dioxide(VO₂) and aluminium nitride(AlN) heterostructure thin film grown on a silicon(Si) substrate using near-infrared laser pulses. The fabricated VO₂/AlN device has a phase transition temperature ∼10K higher than conventional VO₂ devices grown on sapphire substrates. Current switching operation of up to 50mA was possible at various pulse repetition rates in the device with smaller dimensions owing to the increased phase transition temperature, and the average switching contrast was calculated as ∼9634. In particular, the average rising time of the switched current was measured to be ∼36ms, and the falling time was less than 10ms, which is a significantly improved result. Due to the high phase transition temperature and fast switching response, the fabricated device is expected to be beneficially applied to laser-assisted current switching.