Voltage Triggered Hysteretic Switching of VO$_{2}$ at Room Temperature

Vanadium oxide (VO$_{2})$ is known to undergo an insulator-to-metal transition near 340K; because of this proximity to room temperature, VO$_{2}$ is a promising candidate material for technological applications such as sensors and memory devices. We use conducting atomic force microscopy to investigate the voltage triggered insulator-to-metal transition in VO$_{2}$ at the nanoscale. We observe hysteretic resistance switching as a function of locally applied electric field, at room temperature. We correlate the hysteresis loop shape with surface morphology.