Study on Electrical Properties and 1064nm Pulse Laser Damage of Vanadium Oxide Thin Film

Vanadium oxide thin film which has a reversible semiconductor-metal phase transition has been obtained by reactive ion-beam sputtering and subsequent annealing in Ar gas. Micro-analysis shows that this thin film is homogeneous and compact, its spheric grain size is about 50nm and it is composed of VO2 and V2O5. Electrical properties testing indicate that its phase transition temperature is near 60°C, abrupt change of resistivity before and after phase transition is approximate to 3 orders of magnitude, temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) is about -0.0393K-1 at 25°C and activation energy is about 0.3006eV at the range of low temperature. Using a pulse laser beam with wavelength of 1064nm and pulse width of 10ns, laser damage threshold was obtained to be 20.1mJ/cm2. Damage spot morphology of the film was also researched carefully to discover its laser damage mechanism. All results above prove that this thin film is a perfect thermo-sensitive material that can be used for uncooled infrared detector and laser protection.