Voltage controlled biaxial strain in VO2 films grown on 0.72Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)-0.28PbTiO3 crystals and its effect on the transition temperature

Vanadium oxide thin films (VO2) were deposited on 0.72Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)-0.28PbTiO(3) (PMN-PT) crystalline substrates using pulsed laser deposition method. Due to their huge piezoelectric coefficients in the order of 2500 pm/V, the PMN-PT substrates are used to impose additional amount of biaxial strain to the VO2 films by applying an external bias to the substrates. The influence of the biaxial strain on the transition temperature and on the conductive properties of the VO2 films is investigated in this work. Thus, a change in the biaxial strain of -0.8 x 10(-3) applied in the (110) plane of the rutile cell of the VO2 lowered the metal-to-insulator transition temperature by 1.35 degrees C. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.