Document Type

Article

Department/Program

Physics

Journal Title

Physical Review B

Pub Date

2-2018

Publisher

American Physical Society

Volume

97

Issue

8

Abstract

It is generally believed that in first-order phase transitions in materials with imperfections, the formation of phase domains must be affected to some extent by stochastic (probabilistic) processes. The stochasticity would lead to unreliable performance in nanoscale devices that have the potential to exploit the transformation of physical properties in a phase transition. Here we show that stochasticity at nanometer length scales is completely suppressed in the thermally driven metal-insulator transition (MIT) in sputtered vanadium dioxide (VO2) films. The nucleation and growth of domain patterns of metallic and insulating phases occur in a strikingly reproducible way. The completely deterministic nature of domain formation and growth in films with imperfections is a fundamental and unexpected finding about the kinetics of this material. Moreover, it opens the door for realizing reliable nanoscale devices based on the MIT in VO2 and similar phase-change materials.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.085146

Publisher Statement

This work is made available for educational and personal use only. Copyright is credited to the authors. Any other uses should be directed to the publisher.

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