title: Nanoscale Engineering in VO2Nanowires via Direct Electron Writing Process.
abstract: Controlling phase transition in functional materials at nanoscale is not only of broad scientific interest but also important for practical applications in the fields of renewable energy, information storage, transducer, sensor, and so forth. As a model functional material, vanadium dioxide (VO2) has its metal-insulator transition (MIT) usually at a sharp temperature around 68 °C. Here, we report a focused electron beam can directly lower down the transition temperature of a nanoarea to room temperature without prepatterning the VO2. This novel process is called radiolysis-assisted MIT (R-MIT). The electron beam irradiation fabricates a unique gradual MIT zone to several times of the beam size in which the temperature-dependent phase transition is achieved in an extended temperature range. The gradual transformation zone offers to precisely control the ratio of metal/insulator phases. This direct electron writing technique can open up an opportunity to precisely engineer nanodomains of diversified electronic properties in functional material-based devices.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microstructure and Properties of Advanced Materials, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing 100124, China.
authors.forename: Zhenhua
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University , Houston, Texas 77005, United States.
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microstructure and Properties of Advanced Materials, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing 100124, China.
authors.forename: Wenqiang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microstructure and Properties of Advanced Materials, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing 100124, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microstructure and Properties of Advanced Materials, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing 100124, China.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microstructure and Properties of Advanced Materials, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing 100124, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoxing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ke
authors.affiliation: Beijing Computational Science Research Center , Beijing 100084, China.
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Engineering and System Science, National Tsing Hua University , Hsinchu 300, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Furong
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microstructure and Properties of Advanced Materials, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing 100124, China.
authors.forename: Manling
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0415-5881
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sui
keywords: Vanadium dioxide (VO2); domain wall; metal−insulator transition (MIT); oxygen vacancy; radiolysis; transition temperature