Tailoring of the thermomechanical performance of VO2 nanowire bimorph actuators by ion implantation

Vanadium dioxide VO2VO2 nanowire bimorph actuators work on the basis of the large abrupt length change at the metal-insulator phase transition (MIT). A key parameter for the bimorph performance and efficiency is the bending curvature and the width of the temperature hysteresis of the MIT which is inherently large for single domain VO2 metal side coated nanowires. In this work we present single-clamped Ir side coated VO2VO2 bimorphs which show unprecedented high bending curvatures of up to 105105 m−1 and new type of side ion-implanted VO2VO2 nanowire bimorph actuators with a nearly completely suppressed temperature hysteresis. It is assumed that ion-beam induced radiation defects in the VO2VO2 crystal structure act as nucleation sites for the MIT. Moreover it will be shown that mechanical strain intentionally built-in during VO2 nanowire bimorph fabrication allows to direct phase transformation via a strain stabilized metastable phase and thus allows to control bending response on temperature change.