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 VO ₂ (B) films exhibit c-axis out-of-plane, while the films have 4 possible in-plane matching relations. In addition, a small amount of VO ₂ (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.