Optical properties across the insulator to metal transitions in vanadium oxide compounds

Anisotropic Optical Response of Ti-Doped VO2 Single Crystals

This study delves into the effects of titanium (Ti) doping on the optical properties of vanadium dioxide (VO2), a material well known for its metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) near room temperature. By incorporating Ti into VO2's crystal lattice, we aim to uncover the resultant changes in its physical properties, crucial for enhancing its application in smart devices. Utilizing polarized infrared micro-spectroscopy, we examined TixV1-xO2 single crystals with varying Ti concentrations (x = 0.059, x = 0.082, and x = 0.187) across different crystal phases (the conductive rutile phase and insulating monoclinic phases M1 and M2) from the far-infrared to the visible spectral range. Our findings reveal that Ti doping significantly influences the phononic spectra, introducing absorption peaks not attributed to pure VO2 or TiO2. This is especially notable with polarization along the crystal growth axis, mainly in the x = 0.187 sample. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the electronic contribution to optical conductivity in the metallic phase exhibits strong anisotropy, higher along the c axis than the a-b plane. This anisotropy, coupled with the progressive broadening of the zone center infrared active phonon modes with increasing doping, highlights the complex interplay between structural and electronic dynamics in doped VO2. Our results underscore the potential of Ti doping in fine-tuning VO2's electronic and thermochromic properties, paving the way for its enhanced application in optoelectronic devices and technologies.

Photothermally Activated Artificial Neuromorphic Synapses

Biological nervous systems rely on the coordination of billions of neurons with complex, dynamic connectivity to enable the ability to process information and form memories. In turn, artificial intelligence and neuromorphic computing platforms have sought to mimic biological cognition through software-based neural networks and hardware demonstrations utilizing memristive circuitry with fixed dynamics. To incorporate the advantages of tunable dynamic software implementations of neural networks into hardware, we develop a proof-of-concept artificial synapse with adaptable resistivity. This synapse leverages the photothermally induced local phase transition of VO2 thin films by temporally modulated laser pulses. Such a process quickly modifies the conductivity of the film site-selectively by a factor of 500 to "activate" these neurons and store "memory" by applying varying bias voltages to induce self-sustained Joule heating between electrodes after activation with a laser. These synapses are demonstrated to undergo a complete heating and cooling cycle in less than 120 ns.

Facile Fabrication of High-Performance Thermochromic VO2-Based Films on Si for Application in Phase-Change Devices

This work reports on an alternative and advantageous procedure to attain VO₂-based thermochromic coatings on silicon substrates. It involves the sputtering of vanadium thin films at glancing angles and their subsequent fast annealing in an air atmosphere. By adjusting thickness and porosity of films as well as the thermal treatment parameters, high VO₂(M) yields were achieved for 100, 200, and 300 nm thick layers treated at 475 and 550 °C for reaction times below 120 s. Comprehensive structural and compositional characterization by Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning-transmission electron microscopies combined with analytical techniques such as electron energy-loss spectroscopy bring to the fore the successful synthesis of VO₂(M) + V₂O₃/V₆O₁₃/V₂O₅ mixtures. Likewise, a 200 nm thick coating consisting exclusively of VO₂(M) is also achieved. Conversely, the functional characterization of these samples is addressed by variable temperature spectral reflectance and resistivity measurements. The best results are obtained for the VO₂/Si sample with changes in reflectance of 30-65% in the near-infrared at temperatures between 25 and 110 °C. Similarly, it is also proven that the achieved mixtures of vanadium oxides can be advantageous for certain optical applications in specific infrared windows. Finally, the features of the different structural, optical, and electrical hysteresis loops associated with the metal-insulator transition of the VO₂/Si sample are disclosed and compared. These remarkable thermochromic performances hereby accomplished highlight the suitability of these VO₂-based coatings for applications in a wide range of optical, optoelectronic, and/or electronic smart devices.

Vanadium Oxide: Phase Diagrams, Structures, Synthesis, and Applications

Vanadium oxides with multioxidation states and various crystalline structures offer unique electrical, optical, optoelectronic and magnetic properties, which could be manipulated for various applications. For the past 30 years, significant efforts have been made to study the fundamental science and explore the potential for vanadium oxide materials in ion batteries, water splitting, smart windows, supercapacitors, sensors, and so on. This review focuses on the most recent progress in synthesis methods and applications of some thermodynamically stable and metastable vanadium oxides, including but not limited to V₂O₃, V₃O₅, VO₂, V₃O₇, V₂O₅, V₂O₂, V₆O₁₃, and V₄O₉. We begin with a tutorial on the phase diagram of the V-O system. The second part is a detailed review covering the crystal structure, the synthesis protocols, and the applications of each vanadium oxide, especially in batteries, catalysts, smart windows, and supercapacitors. We conclude with a brief perspective on how material and device improvements can address current deficiencies. This comprehensive review could accelerate the development of novel vanadium oxide structures in related applications.

Spectroscopic Evidence of a Dimensionality-Induced Metal-to-Insulator Transition in the Ruddlesden-Popper Lan+1NinO3n+1 Series

Perovskite-based heterostructures have recently gained remarkable interest, thanks to atomic-scale precision engineering. These systems are very susceptible to small variations of control parameters, such as two-dimensionality, strain, lattice polarizability, and doping. Focusing on the rare-earth nickelate diagram, LaNiO₃ (LNO) catches the eye, being the only nickelate that does not undergo a metal-to-insulator transition (MIT). Therefore, the ground state of LNO has been studied in several theoretical and experimental papers. Here, we show by means of infrared spectroscopy that an MIT can be driven by dimensionality control in ultrathin LNO films when the number of unit cells drops to 2. Such a dimensionality tuning can eventually be tailored when a physically implemented monolayer in the ultrathin films is replaced by a digital single layer embedded in the Ruddlesden-Popper La_n+1Ni_nO_3n+1 series. We provide spectroscopic evidence that the dimensionality-induced MIT in Ruddlesden-Popper nickelates strongly resembles that of ultrathin LNO films. Our results can pave the way to the employment of Ruddlesden-Popper La_n+1Ni_nO_3n+1 to tune the electronic properties of LNO through dimensional transition without the need of physically changing the number of unit cells in thin films.

Overcoming the thermal regime for the electric-field driven Mott transition in vanadium sesquioxide

The complex interplay among electronic, magnetic and lattice degrees of freedom in Mott-Hubbard materials leads to different types of insulator-to-metal transitions (IMT) which can be triggered by temperature, pressure, light irradiation and electric field. However, several questions remain open concerning the quantum or thermal nature of electric field-driven transition process. Here, using intense terahertz pulses, we reveal the emergence of an instantaneous purely-electronic IMT in the Mott-Hubbard vanadium sequioxide (V₂O₃) prototype material. While fast electronics allow thermal-driven transition involving Joule heating, which takes place after tens of picoseconds, terahertz electric field is able to induce a sub-picosecond electronic switching. We provide a comprehensive study of the THz induced Mott transition, showing a crossover from a fast quantum dynamics to a slower thermal dissipative evolution for increasing temperature. Strong-field terahertz-driven electronic transition paves the way to ultrafast electronic switches and high-harmonic generation in correlated systems.

Thermal effects limit the speed of the electrically driven insulator-metal transition in V₂O₃ to tens of picoseconds. Here the authors show that under an intense THz-electric-field excitation the thermal regime can be overcome, achieving a purely electronic transition on ultrafast timescales.

Strong Electron-Phonon and Band Structure Effects in the Optical Properties of High Pressure Metallic Hydrogen

The recent claim of having produced metallic hydrogen in the laboratory relies on measurements of optical spectra. Here, we present first-principles calculations of the reflectivity of hydrogen between 400 and 600 GPa in the I4_{1}/amd crystal structure, the one predicted at these pressures, based on both time-dependent density functional and Eliashberg theories, thus, covering the optical properties from the infrared to the ultraviolet regimes. Our results show that atomic hydrogen displays an interband plasmon at around 6 eV that abruptly suppresses the reflectivity, while the large superconducting gap energy yields a sharp decrease of the reflectivity in the infrared region approximately at 120 meV. The experimentally estimated electronic scattering rates in the 0.7-3 eV range are in agreement with our theoretical estimations, which show that the huge electron-phonon interaction of the system dominates the electronic scattering in this energy range. The remarkable features in the optical spectra predicted here encourage extending the optical measurements to the infrared and ultraviolet regions as our results suggest optical measurements can potentially identify high-pressure phases of hydrogen.

Spectroscopic evidence of a new energy scale for superconductivity in H3S

The discovery of a superconducting phase in sulfur hydride under high pressure with a critical temperature above 200 K has provided fresh impetus to the search for superconductors at ever higher temperatures. Although this systems displays all the hallmarks of superconductivity, the mechanism through which it arises remains to be determined. Here we provide a first optical spectroscopy study of this superconductor. Experimental results for the optical reflectivity of H₃S, under hydrostatic pressure of 150 GPa, for several temperatures and over the range 60 to 600 meV of photon energies, are compared with theoretical calculations based on Eliashberg theory. Two significant features stand out: some remarkably strong infrared active phonons at around 160 meV, and a band with a depressed reflectance in the superconducting state in the region from 450 meV to 600 meV. In this energy range H3S becomes more reflecting with increasing temperature, a change that is traced to superconductivity originating from the electron-phonon interaction. The shape, magnitude, and energy dependence of this band at 150 K agrees with our calculations. This provides strong evidence of a conventional mechanism. However, the unusually strong optical phonon suggests a contribution of electronic degrees of freedom.

Orbital dependent coherence temperature and optical anisotropy of V2O3 quasiparticles

We report on an orbital and temperature dependent study of the onset of coherent quasiparticles in V₂O₃ single crystal. By using polarized infrared spectroscopy we demonstrate that the electronic coherence temperature is strongly orbital dependent, being about 400 K for [Formula: see text] orbitals and 500 K for the [Formula: see text]. This suggests that V₂O₃ low energy electrodynamics can be described in terms of two electron liquids differently renormalized by electronic correlations.

Electrical Switching in Semiconductor-Metal Self-Assembled VO2 Disordered Metamaterial Coatings

As a strongly correlated metal oxide, VO₂ inspires several highly technological applications. The challenging reliable wafer-scale synthesis of high quality polycrystalline VO₂ coatings is demonstrated on 4” Si taking advantage of the oxidative sintering of chemically vapor deposited VO₂ films. This approach results in films with a semiconductor-metal transition (SMT) quality approaching that of the epitaxial counterpart. SMT occurs with an abrupt electrical resistivity change exceeding three orders of magnitude with a narrow hysteresis width. Spatially resolved infrared and Raman analyses evidence the self-assembly of VO₂ disordered metamaterial, compresing monoclinic (M1 and M2) and rutile (R) domains, at the transition temperature region. The M2 mediation of the M1-R transition is spatially confined and related to the localized strain-stabilization of the M2 phase. The presence of the M2 phase is supposed to play a role as a minor semiconducting phase far above the SMT temperature. In terms of application, we show that the VO₂ disordered self-assembly of M and R phases is highly stable and can be thermally triggered with high precision using short heating or cooling pulses with adjusted strengths. Such a control enables an accurate and tunable thermal control of the electrical switching.

Tunable Bragg filters with a phase transition material defect layer

We propose an all-solid-state tunable Bragg filter with a phase transition material as the defect layer. Bragg filters based on a vanadium dioxide defect layer sandwiched between silicon dioxide/titanium dioxide Bragg gratings are experimentally demonstrated. Temperature dependent reflection spectroscopy shows the dynamic tunability and hysteresis properties of the Bragg filter. Temperature dependent Raman spectroscopy reveals the connection between the tunability and the phase transition of the vanadium dioxide defect layer. This work paves a new avenue in tunable Bragg filter designs and promises more applications by combining phase transition materials and optical cavities.

Versatile setup for optical spectroscopy under high pressure and low temperature

We present an optical setup for spectroscopic measurements in the infrared and of Raman shift under high pressure and at low temperature. Using a membrane-driven diamond anvil cell, the pressure can be tuned in situ up to 20 GPa and the temperatures ranges from room temperature down to 18 K in transmission mode and 13 K in reflection mode. In transmission, the setup is entirely working under vacuum to reduce the water absorption features and obtain a higher spectral stability. Since the infrared throughput obtained with a thermal source is limited, the use of a synchrotron source allowed to enhance the performance, as illustrated with results obtained with various materials. The analysis of the reflectivity is adapted so that it benefits from ambient pressure data and produces quantitative optical conductivity curves that can be easily compared to the results at ambient pressure.

Insulator-metal transition of VO₂ ultrathin films on silicon: evidence for an electronic origin by infrared spectroscopy

We report on the first simultaneous observations of both electronic and structural temperature-induced insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) in VO2 ultrathin films, made possible by the use of broad range transmission infrared spectroscopy. Thanks to these techniques, the infrared phonon structures, as well as the appearance of the free carrier signature, were resolved for the first time. The temperature-resolved spectra allowed the determination of the temperature hysteresis for both the structural (monoclinic-to-rutile) and electronic (insulator-to-metallic) transitions. The combination of these new observations and DFT simulations for the monoclinic structure allows us to verify the direct transition from monoclinic (M1) to rutile and exclude an intermediate structural monoclinic form (M2). The delay in structural modification compared to the primer electronic transition (325 K compared to 304 K) supports the role of free charges as the transition driving force. The shape of the free charge hysteresis suggests that the primer electronic transition occurs first at 304 K, followed by both its propagation to the heart of the layer and the structural transition when T increases. This study outlines further the potential of VO2 ultrathin films integrated on silicon for optoelectronics and microelectronics.

Infrared evidence of a Slater metal-insulator transition in NaOsO₃

The magnetically driven metal-insulator transition (MIT) was predicted by Slater in the fifties. Here a long-range antiferromagnetic (AF) order can open up a gap at the Brillouin electronic band boundary regardless of the Coulomb repulsion magnitude. However, while many low-dimensional organic conductors display evidence for an AF driven MIT, in three-dimensional (3D) systems the Slater MIT still remains elusive. We employ terahertz and infrared spectroscopy to investigate the MIT in the NaOsO₃ 3D antiferromagnet. From the optical conductivity analysis we find evidence for a continuous opening of the energy gap, whose temperature dependence can be well described in terms of a second order phase transition. The comparison between the experimental Drude spectral weight and the one calculated through Local Density Approximation (LDA) shows that electronic correlations play a limited role in the MIT. All the experimental evidence demonstrates that NaOsO₃ is the first known 3D Slater insulator.

Optical conductivity measurements of GaTa4Se8 under high pressure: evidence of a bandwidth-controlled insulator-to-metal Mott transition

The optical properties of a GaTa(4)Se(8) single crystal are investigated under high pressure. At ambient pressure, the optical conductivity exhibits a charge gap of ≈0.12 eV and a broad midinfrared band at ≈0.55 eV. As pressure is increased, the low energy spectral weight is strongly enhanced and the optical gap is rapidly filled, pointing to an insulator to metal transition around 6 GPa. The overall evolution of the optical conductivity demonstrates that GaTa(4)Se(8) is a Mott insulator which undergoes a bandwidth-controlled Mott metal-insulator transition under pressure, in remarkably good agreement with theory. With the use of our optical data and ab initio band structure calculations, our results were successfully compared to the (U/D, T/D) phase diagram predicted by dynamical mean field theory for strongly correlated systems.

A new ring-like arrangement of vanadyl(IV) groups bridged by monodentate alkoxides: cyclo-decakis(μ-cyclohexylmethanolato)pentakis[oxidovanadium(IV)]

The pentanuclear title compound, [V(5)(C(7)H(13)O)(10)O(5)], has a metal-oxygen core that consists of five vanadyl(IV) centres bridged by the O atoms of cyclohexylmethanolate ligands. This particular ring topology is new to oxovanadium(IV) chemistry and resembles the structure proposed for [V(5)O(15)](5-) on the basis of (51)V NMR studies in aqueous solution. The bulky cyclohexylmethanolate ligands adopt chair-like conformations and project outwards from the central cyclic core. The title compound crystallizes in a centrosymmetric triclinic unit cell, which contains four independent but chemically identical molecules in the asymmetric unit. The crystal structure is devoid of any significant intermolecular interactions.

Switching adhesion forces by crossing the metal-insulator transition in Magnéli-type vanadium oxide crystals

Magnéli-type vanadium oxides form the homologous series V(n)O(2) (n) (-1) and exhibit a temperature-induced, reversible metal-insulator first order phase transition (MIT). We studied the change of the adhesion force across the transition temperature between the cleavage planes of various vanadium oxide Magnéli phases (n = 3 … 7) and spherical titanium atomic force microscope (AFM) tips by systematic force-distance measurements with a variable-temperature AFM under ultrahigh vacuum conditions (UHV). The results show, for all investigated samples, that crossing the transition temperatures leads to a distinct change of the adhesion force. Low adhesion corresponds consistently to the metallic state. Accordingly, the ability to modify the electronic structure of the vanadium Magnéli phases while maintaining composition, stoichiometry and crystallographic integrity, allows for relating frictional and electronic material properties at the nano scale. This behavior makes the vanadium Magnéli phases interesting candidates for technology, e.g., as intelligent devices or coatings where switching of adhesion or friction is desired.

New vanadium oxide nanostructures: controlled synthesis and their smart electrical switching properties

Control over the different polymorphs of vanadium oxide that possess electrical switching properties is advancing rapidly as a result of the need to address energy-efficiency issues; an example of which is the intelligent regulation of infrared light demonstrated by these polymorphs. Recent advances in the development of new vanadium oxide structures as well as their promising electrical switching properties are summarized here. Theoretical analysis and experimental results suggest that the presence of infinite vanadium ion chains in the crystal structure plays a decisive role in determining the electrical properties of vanadium oxides. The successful synthesis of new vanadium oxide materials and their nanostructures not only promotes a mechanistic understanding of the temperature-driven electrical switching properties but also provides the right materials for constructing smart devices that can selectively filter out infrared light.