Functional oxides with strongly correlated electron systems, such as vanadium dioxide, manganite, and so on, show a metal-insulator transition and an insulator-metal transition (MIT and IMT) with a change in conductivity of several orders of magnitude. Since the discovery of phase separation during transition processes, many researchers have been trying to capture a nanoscale electronic domain and investigate its exotic properties. To understand the exotic properties of the nanoscale electronic domain, we studied the MIT and IMT properties for the VO₂ electronic domains confined into a 20 nm length scale. The confined domains in VO₂ exhibited an intrinsic first-order MIT and IMT with an unusually steep single-step change in the temperature dependent resistivity (R-T) curve. The investigation of the temperature-sweep-rate dependent MIT and IMT properties revealed the statistical transition behavior among the domains. These results are the first demonstration approaching the transition dynamics: the competition between the phase-transition kinetics and experimental temperature-sweep-rate in a nano scale. We proposed a statistical transition model to describe the correlation between the domain behavior and the observable R-T curve, which connect the progression of the MIT and IMT from the macroscopic to microscopic viewpoints.

中文翻译：

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空间受限VO2纳米结构中电子域的统计金属-绝缘体跃迁特性的研究

与电子系统密切相关的功能性氧化物（例如二氧化钒，锰矿等）显示出电导率变化几个数量级的金属-绝缘体转变和绝缘体-金属转变（MIT和IMT）。自从在过渡过程中发现相分离以来，许多研究人员一直在尝试捕获纳米级电子域并研究其奇异特性。为了了解纳米级电子域的奇异特性，我们研究了VO ₂电子域的MIT和IMT特性，该VO ₂电子域限制在20 nm的长度范围内。VO _2中的受约束域表现出固有的一阶MIT和IMT，并具有与温度相关的电阻率（R- Ť）曲线。对温度扫描速率相关的MIT和IMT特性的研究揭示了域之间的统计过渡行为。这些结果是第一个论证转变动力学的论证：相变动力学与实验温度扫描速率之间的竞争达到了纳米级。我们提出了一个统计过渡模型来描述域行为与可观察到的R - T曲线之间的相关性，它们从宏观到微观的观点联系了MIT和IMT的发展。