Stable and reversible phase change performance of TiO2 coated VO2 nano-columns: Experiments and theoretical analysis

Abstract We have fabricated VO2 nano-columns (NCs) on the aluminized quartz glass substrates using glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique inside the electron beam (e-beam) evaporator chamber. An e-beam deposited TiO2 thin cap-layer has been introduced on the top of the VO2 NCs to protect VO2 phase which is usually unstable and turns to stable higher oxidation state, i.e., V2O5. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis of TiO2 thin film (TF) coated VO2 NCs shows the presence of VO2 phases along with the other oxidation states. The Fourier-Transform-Infrared-Spectroscopy (FTIR) confirms the presence of Ti–O–V, V–O vibrations bands in VO2 NCs/TiO2 TF samples. The VO2 NCs/TiO2 TF sample possesses a sharp drop (~103 order) in resistance at the transition temperature (Tc) ~66 °C. This sample also shows a stable semiconducting to metallic phase (vice versa as well) transition temperature (PTT) hysteresis even after one month which ensures the stable performance in terms of phase transition characteristic. Small-radius polaron model (SRPM) is used to calculate the sheet resistance of the VO2 NCs, where we consider the effect of thermal lattice vibrations on the overlap integral of the crystal atoms. The temperature dependency of constants A and e have been observed uniquely. The Fermi-Dirac (F-D), Migdal distribution (MD) model have been taken into account for the first time to calculate the conduction band carrier density of VO2 NCs and ratio of the resistance in the semiconducting (RS), metallic phase (RM) is also calculated. The calculated electron concentration ( n c ) is 3.1 × 1019 cm-3 at the point of PTT (66 °C).