Ultrathin VO₂ Films on Functional Substrates

The metal-insulator transition (MIT) in vanadium dioxide (VO₂) thin films is strongly affected by grain size, thickness, and interfacial properties. Typically, a minimum thickness around 50 nm is required for VO₂ to exhibit a significant MIT when functional substrates like sapphire and silicon are used. Several works have shown that thin films below 20 nm, with up to 2-3 decades of change in the resistance across the MIT, can be achieved but require complex pre- or postprocessing of the samples. We show that predeposition substrate condition control facilitates the direct growth of VO₂ ultrathin 15 nm films, exhibiting a resistance change between 3 and 4 decades across the MIT. Our findings indicate that the interface between the film and the substrate is crucial in determining the initial growth layers and the structural evolution. With appropriate substrate surface treatment, the desired VO₂ MIT can be enhanced regardless of the substrate crystallographic orientation. Moreover, we propose a novel approach to obtain large resistance changes across the MIT in ultrathin VO₂ films by incorporating a predeposited 1.5 nm vanadium oxide buffer layer, thereby eliminating the need to use different materials or complex pre- or postprocessing of the samples. We also demonstrate that this method improves the transition of 25-50 nm VO₂ thin films on silicon substrates. Our study reveals a simple approach for direct growth of ultrathin VO₂ films exhibiting a significant MIT, which is commonly accepted unattainable over substrates of technological importance, such as sapphire and silicon.