Growth of VO2 films with metal-insulator transition on silicon substrates in inductively coupled plasma-assisted sputtering

Single-phase monoclinic vanadium dioxide (VO₂) films were grown on a Si(100) substrate using inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-assisted sputtering with an internal coil. The VO₂ film exhibited metal-insulator (M-I) transition at around 65 °C with three orders of change in resistivity, with a minimum hysteresis width of 2.2 °C. X-ray diffraction showed structural phase transition (SPT) from monoclinic to tetragonal rutile VO₂. For conventional reactive magnetron sputtering, vanadium oxides with excess oxygen (V₂O₅ and V₃O₇) could not be eliminated from stoichiometric VO₂. Single-phase monoclinic VO₂ growths that are densely filled with smaller crystal grains are important for achieving M-I transition with abrupt resistivity change.