Metal-insulator transition induced in CaVO3 thin films
Abstract
Stoichiometric CaVO3 (CVO) thin films of various thicknesses were grown on single crystal SrTiO3 (STO) (001) substrates using a pulsed electron-beam deposition technique. The CVO films were capped with a 2.5 nm STO layer. We observed a temperature driven metal-insulator transition (MIT) in CVO films with thicknesses below 4 nm that was not observed in either thick CVO films or STO films. The emergence of this MIT can be attributed to the reduction in effective bandwidth due to a crossover from a three-dimensional metal to a two-dimensional insulator. The insulating phase was only induced with a drive current below 0.1 μA. X-ray absorption measurements indicated different electronic structures for thick and very thin films of CVO. Compared with the thick film (∼60 nm), thin films of CVO (2–4 nm) were more two-dimensional with the V charge state closer to V4+.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Apr 02, 2013
- Source ID
- 10.1063/1.4798963
Entities
People
- Bo Chen
- Jiwei Lu
- Jude Laverock
- Kevin E. Smith
- Man Gu
- Stuart A. Wolf
Organizations
- Army Research Office
- Boston University
- United States Department of Energy
- University of Virginia