Thickness dependence of the electronic properties in V2O3 thin films

C. Grygiel (1, 2) , Ch. Simon (2) , B. Mercey (2) , W. Prellier (2) , R. Fresard (2) , P. Limelette (3)

1 CIMAP - UMR 6252 - Centre de recherche sur les Ions, les MAtériaux et la Photonique
2 CRISMAT - Laboratoire de cristallographie et sciences des matériaux
3 LEMA - Laboratoire d'Electrodynamique des Matériaux Avancés

High quality vanadium sesquioxide V 2 O 3 films 170-1100 Å were grown using the pulsed laser deposition technique on 0001-oriented sapphire substrates, and the effects of film thickness on the lattice strain and electronic properties were examined. X-ray diffraction indicates that there is an in-plane compressive lattice parameter a, close to −3.5% with respect to the substrate and an out-of-plane tensile lattice parameter c. The thin film samples display metallic character between 2 and 300 K, and no metal-to-insulator transition is observed. At low temperature, the V 2 O 3 films behave as a strongly correlated metal, and the resistivity follows the equation = 0 + AT 2 , where A is the transport coefficient in a Fermi liquid. Typical values of A have been calculated to be 0.14 cm K −2 , which is in agreement with the coefficient reported for V 2 O 3 single crystals under high pressure. Moreover, a strong temperature dependence of the Hall resistance confirms the electronic correlations of these V 2 O 3 thin film samples.

Domaines: Electrons fortement corrélés [cond-mat.str-el]

C. Grygiel, Ch. Simon, B. Mercey, W. Prellier, R. Fresard, et al.. Thickness dependence of the electronic properties in V2O3 thin films. Applied Physics Letters, 2007, 91 (26), pp.262103. ⟨10.1063/1.2824465⟩. ⟨hal-01870065⟩