Textured metastable VO2 (B) thin films on SrTiO3 substrates with significantly enhanced conductivity

Textured metastable VO2 (B) thin films with a layered structure were grown on SrTiO3 (001) by pulsed laser deposition. The X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy results indicate that VO2 (B) films exhibit c-axis out-of-plane, while the films have 4 possible in-plane matching relations. In addition, a small amount of VO2 (M) phase can co-grow in the VO2 (B) phase when the film thickness exceeds a threshold. The thick VO2 films on STO exhibit a sharp metal-insulator transition with an increase of electrical conductivity in two orders of magnitude. This study may provide an alternative approach to enhance the performance of insulating VO2 (B) based batteries with increased electrical conductivity by incorporating VO2 (M) phase in the VO2 (B) phase layered network.