title: Intrinsic optical properties of vanadium dioxide near the insulator-metal transition.
abstract: We studied the insulator-metal transition (IMT) in single-domain, single crystalline vanadium dioxide (VO(2)) microbeams with infrared microspectroscopy. The unique nature of such samples allowed us to probe the intrinsic behavior of both insulating and metallic phases in the close vicinity of IMT, and investigate the IMT driven by either strain or temperature independently. We found that the VO(2) insulating band gap narrows rapidly upon heating, and the infrared response undergoes an abrupt transition at both strain- and temperature-induced IMT. The results are consistent with recent studies attributing the opening of VO(2) insulating band gap to a correlation-assisted Peierls transition.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720, USA. wtliu@uclink.berkeley.edu
authors.forename: Wei-Tao
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Fan
authors.forename: Zhao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: Michael C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Y R
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004579:Electron Transport; D008027:Light; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010087:Oxides / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012666:Semiconductors; D013499:Surface Properties; D014639:Vanadium / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D010087:Oxides; D014639:Vanadium