Competitive growth texture of pulsed laser deposited vanadium dioxide nanostructures on a glass substrate

We report on the crystal structure and morphology of vanadium dioxide (VO2) nanostructures synthesized by pulsed laser deposition on soda-lime glass substrates. The VO2 nanostructures exhibit sharp a-axis diffraction peaks, characteristic of the VO2 monoclinic phase, which implies that highly a-axis textured VO2 was formed. A detailed description of the growth mechanisms and the substrate–film interaction is given, and the characteristics of the electronic transition and hysteresis of the phase transition are described in terms of the morphology and grain boundary structure. The sharpness of the transition and the hysteresis upon heating and cooling are found to be strong functions of the crystal structure and microstructure (grain size and shape).