Date of Award

8-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Electrical Engineering

Committee Chair/Advisor

Dr. Goutam Koley

Committee Member

Dr. Judson D. Ryckman

Committee Member

Dr. Shamiul Alam

Abstract

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is an interesting phase change material that undergoes semiconductor to metal transition (SMT) at ~ 67  and has many potential electrical and optical applications. While silicon is the most common substrate for device fabrication, direct growth of VO2 on silicon is very difficult to achieve in practice due to the massive lattice and thermal property mismatch. To accommodate this strain, we explore the possibility of using alumina (Al2O3) buffer layer between them. While we managed to grow good quality VO2 thin films, the residual strain significantly alters the electrical properties of the grown VO2 layer. Our observed semiconductor to metal transition temperature ranged between 50  - 60 . In this work, we study the material property by X-ray diffraction, observe the surface properties by optical microscopy and correlate them with their electrical properties. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work where we grow VO2 thin films on silicon with alumina buffer layer and observe the strain effects. In addition, I did the electrical characterization of some previously fabricated devices, which will be helpful to explore the newly grown thin films for future works.

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2706-8289

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Available for download on Tuesday, August 31, 2027

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