Electrically-driven metal–insulator transition of vanadium dioxide thin films in a metal–oxide-insulator–metal device structure

We report the successful growth of vanadium dioxide (VO2) films on SiO2 buffered metal electrode and the fabrication of metal–oxide-insulator–metal (MOIM) junction. The VO2 film has an abrupt thermal-induced metal–insulator transition (MIT) with a change of resistance of 2 orders of magnitude. The electrically-driven MIT (E-MIT) switching characteristics have been investigated by applying perpendicular voltage to VO2 based MOIM device at particular temperatures, sharp jumps in electric current were observed in the I–V characteristics under a low threshold voltage of 1.6 V. The Ohmic behavior, non-Ohmic super-linear one, and metallic regime are sequentially observed in the MOIM device with the increase of voltage. It is expected to be of significance in exploring ultrafast electronic devices incorporating correlated oxides based MOIM structure.