Abstract
We investigate the percolative insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) in films of the correlated material vanadium dioxide . Scattering-type scanning near-field infrared microscopy and atomic force microscopy were used to explore the relationship between the nucleation of metallic regions and the topography in insulating . We demonstrate that the IMT begins within 10 nm from grain boundaries and crevices by using mean curvature and statistical analysis. We also observe coexistence of insulating and metallic domains in a single crystalline grain that points to intrinsic inhomogeneity in due to competing electronic phases in the IMT regime.
- Received 26 May 2009
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.80.115115
©2009 American Physical Society