Strain Effects in Epitaxial VO2 Thin Films on Columnar Buffer-Layer TiO2/Al2O3 Virtual Substrates

Epitaxial VO2/TiO2 thin film heterostructures were grown on (100) (m-cut) Al2O3 substrates via pulsed laser deposition. We have demonstrated the ability to reduce the semiconductor-metal transition (SMT) temperature of VO2 to ∼44 °C while retaining a 4 order of magnitude SMT using the TiO2 buffer layer. A combination of electrical transport and X-ray diffraction reciprocal space mapping studies help examine the specific strain states of VO2/TiO2/Al2O3 heterostructures as a function of TiO2 film growth temperatures. Atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy analyses show that the columnar microstructure present in TiO2 buffer films is responsible for the partially strained VO2 film behavior and subsequently favorable transport characteristics with a lower SMT temperature. Such findings are of crucial importance for both the technological implementation of the VO2 system, where reduction of its SMT temperature is widely sought, as well as the broader complex oxide community, where greater understanding of the evolution of microstructure, strain, and functional properties is a high priority.