Electric field induced phase transitions and dynamic tuning of the properties of oxide structures

A phase transition switch comprising:

• a substrate;
• a vanadium oxide thin film deposited on the substrate;
• an electrode fabricated on the vanadium oxide thin film;
• and
• a controller configured to controllably apply an electric field to the vanadium oxide thin film through the electrode, so as to control the conductance of the thin film until a metal-insulator transition is induced across the thin film;
• wherein the substrate is an As-doped silicon substrate, and wherein the vanadium oxide thin film has a thickness between about 50 nm and about 200 nm.

A phase transition switch comprising:

• a substrate;
• a vanadium oxide thin film deposited on the substrate;
• an electrode fabricated on the vanadium oxide thin film;
• and
• a controller configured to controllably apply an electric field to the vanadium oxide thin film through the electrode, so as to control the conductance of the thin film until a metal-insulator transition is induced across the thin film;
• wherein the controller is further configured to apply the electric field to the vanadium oxide thin film at a temperature T, and to control a threshold electric field strength for initiating the metal-insulator transition by varying the temperature T.

An oxide nanostructure, comprising:

• a substrate;
• a nanoscale oxide thin film deposited on the substrate, the nanoscale oxide thin film having a conductance that can be changed by an electric field transmitted across the film;
• and
• one or more nanodots deposited on the nanoscale oxide thin film;
• wherein the nanodots are adapted, when an electric field is applied thereto, to transmit the electric field across the nanoscale thin film so that the conductance of the thin film is changed and a metal-insulator transition is induced across the thin film.

An oxide nanostructure, comprising:

• a substrate;
• a nanoscale oxide thin film deposited on the substrate;
• and
• one or more nanodots deposited on the nanoscale oxide thin film;
• wherein the nanodots are adapted, when an electric field is applied thereto, to transmit the electric field across the nanoscale thin film so that the conductance of the thin film is changed and a metal-insulator transition is induced across the thin film;
• and
• wherein the oxide comprises VO2 (vanadium dioxide), and has a thickness of about 200 nm;
• and wherein the substrate is an n-type doped silicon having a resistivity of 0.002Ωcm to about 0.005Ωcm.

A system comprising:

• a substrate;
• a single phase oxide layer deposited on top of the substrate, the single phase oxide layer having a conductance that can be tuned by an electric field, and including only one of a single conducting region and a single insulating region;
• and
• an electrode deposited on top of the single phase oxide layer;
• wherein the single phase oxide layer is configured to undergo a transition to a multi phase oxide layer in response to an electric field applied to the single phase oxide layer through the electrode;
• and
• wherein the multi phase oxide layer includes a multi phase oxide material having one or more optical and dielectric properties that are tunable by controllably varying the applied electric field, and
• wherein the multi phase oxide layer includes one or more conducting regions and one or more insulating regions.