Exploring the Effects of Sputtering and Annealing Parameters on VO₂ Thin Films
Major
Physics
Submission Type
Poster
Area of Study or Work
Physics
Faculty Advisor
Keller Andrews
Location
CNS Atrium
Start Date
4-11-2026 11:15 AM
End Date
4-11-2026 12:30 PM
Abstract
Vanadium dioxide (VO₂) is a material with properties that are useful in materials science, optics, and quantum communication. It has a metal-insulator transition triggerable by many methods, but is primarily used in cases where heat or incident light can trigger the transition. At room-temperature, in its insulating state, VO₂ is optically transparent and non-conductive. However, as the material is heated above 68 °C, VO₂ transitions to a metallic state and becomes reflective to light with infrared wavelengths and increases in conductivity by a factor of 10⁴. Due to these changes, VO₂ thin films are useful in terahertz optics and at standard telecom fiber wavelengths. This indicates that thin films of vanadium dioxide have possible applications in quantum communication systems leveraging existing telecom infrastructure. In the past, we explored different ways to grow vanadium dioxide thin films. This project explores the growth of thin films by sputter coating. We begin by exploring "reactive" sputtering where we start with a vanadium target, sputter in an oxygen atmosphere. The sputtered material and oxygen atmosphere react to give a vanadium oxide film. However, we had issues with diminishing thin film growth due to target poisoning. We then switched to standard sputtering with Argon gas, followed by post-deposition annealing in an oxygen atmosphere to oxidize the films. The metal-insulator transition of the resulting films can be characterized by the change in electrical properties measured by temperature-dependent four-point measurement. This project is exploring deposition parameters for our VO₂ growth and investigating the post deposition annealing VO₂ thin films.
Exploring the Effects of Sputtering and Annealing Parameters on VO₂ Thin Films
CNS Atrium
Vanadium dioxide (VO₂) is a material with properties that are useful in materials science, optics, and quantum communication. It has a metal-insulator transition triggerable by many methods, but is primarily used in cases where heat or incident light can trigger the transition. At room-temperature, in its insulating state, VO₂ is optically transparent and non-conductive. However, as the material is heated above 68 °C, VO₂ transitions to a metallic state and becomes reflective to light with infrared wavelengths and increases in conductivity by a factor of 10⁴. Due to these changes, VO₂ thin films are useful in terahertz optics and at standard telecom fiber wavelengths. This indicates that thin films of vanadium dioxide have possible applications in quantum communication systems leveraging existing telecom infrastructure. In the past, we explored different ways to grow vanadium dioxide thin films. This project explores the growth of thin films by sputter coating. We begin by exploring "reactive" sputtering where we start with a vanadium target, sputter in an oxygen atmosphere. The sputtered material and oxygen atmosphere react to give a vanadium oxide film. However, we had issues with diminishing thin film growth due to target poisoning. We then switched to standard sputtering with Argon gas, followed by post-deposition annealing in an oxygen atmosphere to oxidize the films. The metal-insulator transition of the resulting films can be characterized by the change in electrical properties measured by temperature-dependent four-point measurement. This project is exploring deposition parameters for our VO₂ growth and investigating the post deposition annealing VO₂ thin films.