title: Modulation of the electrical properties of VO₂ nanobeams using an ionic liquid as a gating medium.
abstract: Vanadium dioxide (VO(2)) is a strongly correlated transition metal oxide with a dramatic metal-insulator transition at 67 °C. Researchers have long been interested in manipulating this transition via the field effect. Here we report attempts to modulate this transition in single-crystal VO(2) nanowires via electrochemical gating using ionic liquids. Stray water contamination in the ionic liquid leads to large, slow, hysteretic conductance responses to changes in the gate potential, allowing tuning of the activation energy of the conductance in the insulating state. We suggest that these changes are the result of electrochemical doping via hydrogen. In the absence of this chemical effect, gate response is minimal, suggesting that significant field-effect modulation of the metal-insulator transition is not possible, at least along the crystallographic directions relevant in these nanowires.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and Astronomy, MS 61, Rice University, 6100 Main Street, Houston, Texas 77005, United States.
authors.forename: Heng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Natelson
mesh_terms: D004553:Electric Conductivity; D052578:Ionic Liquids / Q000737:chemistry*; D046911:Macromolecular Substances / Q000737:chemistry; D008422:Materials Testing; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D013499:Surface Properties; D017968:Vanadium Compounds / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D052578:Ionic Liquids; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D017968:Vanadium Compounds; C066075:vanadium pentoxide