Universal phase dynamics in VO2 switches revealed by ultrafast operando diffraction

Abstract

Strongly correlated materials that exhibit an insulator-metal transition are key candidates in the search for new computing platforms. Understanding the pathways and timescales underlying the electrically-driven insulator-metal transition is crucial for uncovering the fundamental limits of device operation. Using stroboscopic electron diffraction, we perform synchronized time-resolved measurements of atomic motions and electronic transport in operating vanadium dioxide switches. We discover an electrically-triggered, isostructural state that forms transiently on microsecond timescales, stabilized by local heterogeneities and interfacial interactions between the equilibrium phases. This metastable phase bears striking similarity to that formed under photoexcitation within picoseconds, suggesting a universal transformation pathway across eight orders of magnitude of timescale. Our results establish a new route for uncovering non-equilibrium and metastable phases in correlated materials, and open avenues for engineering novel dynamical behavior in nanoelectronics.

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Cited by in corpus (22)

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• Uniting the order and disorder dynamics in photoexcited VO2
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• Photo-induced nonequilibrium states in Mott insulators
• The photoinduced hidden metallic phase of monoclinic VO2 driven by local nucleation via a self-amplification process
• Mapping nanoscale charge states and phase domains with quantitative hyperspectral coherent diffractive imaging spectroscopy
• Unconventional light-induced states visualized by ultrafast electron diffraction and microscopy
• Multi-Objective Bayesian Active Learning for MeV-ultrafast electron diffraction
• High-strain-induced local modification of the electronic properties of VO${}_2$ thin films
• Nature of the photo-induced metallic state in monoclinic VO${}_2$
• Megahertz cycling of ultrafast structural dynamics enabled by nanosecond thermal dissipation
• Lattice contraction induced by resistive switching in chromium-doped V2O3: a hallmark of Mott physics
• Light-induced phase transitions in vanadium dioxide: a tensor network study
• Impact of photoexcitation on secondary electron emission: a Monte Carlo study
• Dynamics of photo-induced ferromagnetism in oxides with orbital degeneracy
• Imaging Nanoscale Carrier, Thermal, and Structural Dynamics with Time-Resolved and Ultrafast Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy
• Ultrafast Electron Diffraction: Visualizing Dynamic States of Matter
• Ultrafast dynamics of atomic correlated disordering in photoinduced VO${}_2$
• Unveiling the critical role of interfacial strain in adjusting electronic phase transitions in correlated vanadium dioxide
• Correlative Ultrafast Imaging of a Propagating Photo-Driven Phase Transition Using 4D STEM
• Tuning of Localized Surface Plasmons in Vanadium Dioxide Nanoparticles via Size and Insulator-Metal Transition