Lattice-Symmetry-Driven Phase Competition in Vanadium Dioxide
POSTER
Abstract
We performed group-theoretical analysis of the symmetry relationships between lattice structures of R, M1, M2, and T phases of vanadium dioxide in the frameworks of the general Ginzburg-Landau phase transition theory. The analysis leads to a conclusion that the competition between the lower-symmetry phases M1, M2, and T in the metal-insulator transition is pure symmetry driven, since all the three phases correspond to different directions of the same multi-component structural order parameter. Therefore, the lower-symmetry phases can be stabilized in respect to each other by small perturbations such as doping or stress.
*Work at ORNL's CNMS was sponsored by DSUF OBES, U.S. DOE. Work at SIUC was funded through NSF 772 ECCS-0925837 and SISGR-DOE ERKCM67. J.D.B. and J.Z.T. were supported by MSED OBES, U.S. DOE. IL was supported by ANR project LOMACOQU.