C. Petit et al., Hysteresis of the metal-insulator transition of VO2; evidence of the influence of microscopic texturation, J PHYS-COND, 11(16), 1999, pp. 3259-3264
Vanadium dioxide films have been deposited on silicon substrates by reactiv
e RF cathodic sputtering from V2O4 and V2O5 targets. The optical measuremen
ts show a good contrast at the semiconductor-metal transition, but exhibit
two kinds of hysteresis cycle: a narrow and symmetrical one, and a wider an
d asymmetrical one. We have mainly studied the microstructure of these samp
les by means of grazing-incidence x-ray diffraction at the LURE synchrotron
radiation facility. We analysed in detail the intensities of the diffracti
on peak spectra and of the portions of diffraction rings. We found a clear
relation between a narrow and symmetrical hysteresis cycle, and a (011) tex
ture of the films. We attribute this result to an improvement in the cooper
ativity of the transition phenomena.