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Sunlight-induced resistance changes and their effects on the semiconductor–metal transition behavior of VO2 film

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Abstract

High-quality VO2 films with precisely controlled thicknesses were grown on sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted oxide molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). To evaluate the degradation of semiconductor–metal transition (SMT) behavior of VO2 films under solar radiation, the temperature-driven SMT was investigated by measuring the electrical resistance during heating and cooling processes under solar simulator AM1.5, which provided illumination approximately matching the natural sunlight. The distinct reversible SMTs were observed for all the samples, whereas a remarkably conflicting trend in resistance change for extremely thin and thick samples was observed after exposure to the sunlight soaking system. The corresponding mechanism was proposed based on sunlight-induced resistance changes due to the transformation in the electron correlation and structural symmetry. The results might be especially attractive for some specific applications of VO2 films where solar radiation was inevitable.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the supports from the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (DUT16LAB11); the Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Inorganic Coating Materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KLICM-2014-01); the Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams, the Ministry of Education (LABKF1401); and the General Project of Liaoning Provincial Education Department (L2015110). We also acknowledge the support during the sample preparation rendered by Dr. C.W. Zou group in the National Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory, the University of Science and Technology of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Materials Modification by Laser, Ion and Electron Beams (Ministry of Education), School of Physics and Optoelectronic Technology, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Minhuan Wang, Jiming Bian, Hongjun Sun, Hongzhu Liu, Xiaoxuan Li, Yingmin Luo & Huolin Huang

  2. Key Laboratory of Inorganic Coating Materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200050, China

    Jiming Bian & Yuzhi Zhang

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  1. Minhuan Wang
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  2. Jiming Bian
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  3. Hongjun Sun
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  4. Hongzhu Liu
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  5. Xiaoxuan Li
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Correspondence to Jiming Bian.

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Wang, M., Bian, J., Sun, H. et al. Sunlight-induced resistance changes and their effects on the semiconductor–metal transition behavior of VO2 film. J Mater Sci 51, 8233–8239 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0098-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0098-y

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