Mott transition in vanadium dioxide (VO$_2$) observed by infrared spectroscopy and nano-imaging

ORAL

Abstract

The driving mechanism for the temperature-induced insulator-to- metal transition (IMT) in vanadium dioxide (VO$_2$) has been debated for the past five decades. Central to this debate is the relative importance of electron-electron correlations and charge-ordering to the IMT. We report near-field infrared images of VO$_2$ films that directly show the percolative IMT. In combination with far-field infrared spectroscopy, the new data reveal the Mott transition with divergent optical mass in the metallic puddles that emerge at the onset of the IMT.

*This work was supported by the US Department of Energy, the DFG Cluster of Excellence Munich-Centre for Advanced Photonics, and the High Risk High Return project in ETRI, Korea.

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Authors

  • Mumtaz Qazilbash

    • University of California San Diego

  • Greg Andreev

    • University of California at San Diego

  • Dimitri Basov

    • Univ. of California, San Diego
    • University of California San Diego
    • Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego
    • University of California, San Diego
    • University of California at San Diego

  • Pei-Chun Ho

    • Department of Physics and Institute for Pure and Applied Physical Sciences, University of California-San Diego
    • Physics/CSU-Fresno
    • Department of Physics, Cal. State U., Fresno

  • M.B. Maple

    • Physics Department, University of California - San Diego
    • University of California, San Diego
    • Physics and IPAPS, UCSD
    • DPIPAP-U.C.-La joya-U.S.A.

  • M. Brehm

  • F. Keilmann

    • Max-Planck-Institut f\"ur Biochemie
    • Abt. Molekulare Strukturbiologie, Max-Planck-Institut fur Biochemie and Center for NanoScience

  • Alexander V. Balatsky

    • Theoretical Division and Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos National Laboratories
    • Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • Los Alamos National Laboratory
    • (LANL)

  • Byung-Gyu Chae

  • Bong-Jun Kim

  • Sun Jin Yun

  • Hyun-Tak Kim

    • ETRI in Korea
    • IT Convergence And Components Lab, ETRI, Daejeon, Korea