Browsing by Subject "Vanadium dioxide"

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10

Open Access
Adaptive metasurface designs for thermal camouflage, radiative cooling, and photodetector applications
(2022-01) Buhara, Ebru
Metamaterials, described as artificial sub-wavelength nanostructures, refer to a class of manufactured materials that possess distinctive electromagnetic features which cannot be found with natural materials. Thermal tunability, negative re-fractive index, perfect absorption, and invisible cloaking are examples of these attributes. Here, we design and implement metamaterials in four important ap-plication areas, namely 1) Multi-spectral infrared camouflage through excitation of plasmon-phonon polaritons in a visible-transparent hBN-ITO nanoantenna emitter, 2) Adaptive visible and short-wave infrared camouflage using a dynami-cally tunable metasurface, 3) Mid-infrared adaptive thermal camouflage using a phase-change material coupled dielectric nanoantenna, 4) An All-Dielectric Meta-surface Coupled with Two-Dimensional Semiconductors for Thermally Tunable Ultra-narrowband Light Absorption. In the first work, a metasurface design is developed to provide adaptive camou-flage in both visible and SWIR ranges. The proposed metasurface is made of an indium tin oxide (ITO) grating on a metal-insulator-metal (MIM, Ag-Sb2S3-Ag) nanocavity. In the amorphous state, the design operates as a colored transmis-sive window while, in the crystalline phase, it switches into a reflective mirror. In the meantime, the cavity acts as a thermally tunable host for the ITO nanoan-tenna providing tunable SWIR absorption to cover two transmissive regions at 1150-1350 nm (Region I) and 1400-1700 nm (Region II). It is found that the excitation of extended surface plasmons (ESPs) and guided mode resonances (GMRs) are responsible for light absorption in the SWIR range. Our theoretical calculations show that, besides the design’s ability for color adoption, the SWIR reflectance in Region I/Region II are reduced to 0.37/0.53 and 0.75/0.25 in the amorphous/crystalline phases. In the second work, a hybrid nanoantenna architecture made of ITO-hBN grating is proposed to satisfy all multi-spectral camouflage requirements. In this design, simultaneous excitation of plasmon-phonon polaritons in ITO and hBN leads to broadband absorption in the NTIR range and reflection in MWIR and LWIR ranges. Moreover, the bulk absorption in ITO film provides SWIR mode camouflage. Moreover, to highlight the importance of this hybrid design, the ITO-hBN design is compared with ITO-TiO2 heterostructure(TiO2 is a lossless dielectric in our desired ranges). Finally, the camouflage performance of the meta-surface is evaluated as the outgoing emission suppression when the metasurface design is on top of the blackbody object. In the third work, a PCM-dielectric based metasurface nanoantenna emitter design is proposed to achieve low observability at the MIR region by tailoring the spectral emissivity of the design. The proposed thermal nanoantenna emitter is composed of a high index dielectric (silicon (Si) in our case) nanograting on top of a thick silver (Ag) mirror. An ultrathin VO2 interlayer is embedded within the grating to actively tune its absorption response. The design geometries are adopted to place the resonance wavelengths in the atmospheric absorption win-dows for thermal camouflage applications. Based on the position of the VO2 layer, the optical response of the design in the metal phase can be diversely tuned from a narrowband to a broadband thermal emitter. Therefore, upon increase in the surface temperature, the proposed metasurface based thermal nanoantenna emitter turns into a broadband emitter with a stronger radiative thermal emission while it compatibly releases its heat based on the camouflage technology require-ment. The proposed design has perfect matching with atmospheric absorption windows so that it can efficiently release its heat without being observed by ther-mal camera systems. The detectability of the structure by a possible IR sensor is calculated using power calculations over the selected spectra. In addition, due to the hysteresis behavior of VO2, the calculations are done separately for cooling and heating conditions. In the fourth and final work, a dielectric based metasurface platform is pro-posed to achieve ultra-narrowband light absorption within a monolayer thick TMDC layer. For this purpose, the metasurface design is optimized. Then, this design is coupled with mono and multilayer TMDCs to observe better absorption results. For this purpose, MoS2, and WS2 are chosen as the most commonly used TMDCs. The coupling of light into Mie resonances, supported by dielec-tric nanograting, provides narrowband absorption within the TMDC layer. To reach further enhancement, a cavity design is integrated into this dielectric-based metasurface. For the best optimized design, the absorptance efficiency reaches to 0.85 and FWHM stays as narrow as 3.1 nm. Finally, the thermal tunability char-acteristic of the design is shown, without use of any phase change material. This is achieved due to strong light confinement within the design. Due to this con-finement, any small change in the refractive index is seen by the resonant design. Thus, the resonance frequency shifts and thermal tunability is acquired. The thermal sensitivity of the above-mentioned optimized design reaches to 0.0096 nm/◦C.
Open Access
Correction to: Active tuning from narrowband to broadband absorbers using a sub-wavelength VO2 embedded layer
(Springer, 2021-02-04) Osgouei, Ataollah Kalantari; Hajian, Hodjat; Khalichi, Bahram; Serebryannikov, Andriy E.; Ghobadi, Amir; Özbay, Ekmel
Metamaterial perfect absorbers (MPAs) with dynamic thermal tuning features are able to control the absorption performance of the resonances, providing diverse applications spanning from optical switches and filters to modulators. In this paper, we propose an MPA with diverse functionalities enabled by vanadium dioxide (VO2) embedded in a metal-dielectric plasmonic structure. For the initial design purpose, a silicon (Si) nanograting on a silver (Ag) mirror is proposed to have multiple resonant responses in the near infrared (NIR) region. Then, the insertion of a thin VO2 layer at the right position enables the design to act as an on/off switch and resonance tuner. In the insulator phase of VO2, in which the permittivity data of VO2 is similar to that of Si, a double strong resonant behavior is achieved within the NIR region. By increasing the temperature, the state of VO2 transforms from insulator to metallic so that the absorption bands turn into three distinct resonant peaks with close spectral positions. Upon this transformation, a new resonance emerges and the existing resonance features experience blue/red shifts in the spectral domain. The superposition of these peaks makes the overall absorption bandwidth broad. Although Si has a small thermo-optic coefficient, owing to strong light confinement in the ultrasmall gaps, a substantial tuning can be achieved within the Si nanogratings. Therefore, the proposed hybrid design can provide multi-resonance tunable features to cover a broad range and can be a promising strategy for the design of linearly thermal-tunable and broadband MPAs. Owing to the proposed double tuning feature, the resonance wavelengths exhibits great sensitivity to temperature, covering a broad wavelength range. Overall, the proposed design strategy demonstrates diverse functionalities enabled by the integration of a thin VO2 layer with plasmonic absorbers.
Open Access
Crystal growth and investigations on the effects of hydrogen doping of VO2
(2019-03) Yavuz, Koray
Vanadium Dioxide(VO2) has been studied extensively for its interesting electronic structure that allows it to go through Metal-Insulator Transition(MIT) at 65 C. The nature of this phenomena is not entirely clear and more research is needed to firmly establish the science behind it and to realize possible applications; such as ultra-fast electrical and optical switching, sensor devices and Mott-Field Effect Transistors. One of the important experiments to understand the electronic structure of a material is Hall-effect measurements but due to acicular (needle like) nature of VO2 crystals, this subject is only studied either on millimeter sized samples which are not suitable for many device applications or on poly crystalline thin films that are under non-uniform stress due to the substrate effects which gives unsatisfactory results when performing experiments. This thesis suggest a new method of chemical vapour deposition(CVD) growth for low aspect ratio VO2 crystals that have lengths between 50-100 m and thicknesses between 40- 170 nm. These crystals can be mechanically removed from the substrate and transferred to use in different applications such as Hall-effect measurements or Transmission Electron Microscope(TEM) studies. Additionaly this work shows some aspects of the surface chemistry of the widely used Silica, Si, quartz and Sapphire substrates; relating with the control of oxygen saturation on the surface. Another VO2 growth method for c-plane sapphire that leads to considerably more crystal yield is shown. Hydrogenation of the VO2 crystals suppresses the MIT so understanding this phenomena might help us better understand the effects lying behind the transition. To study this phenomena a crystal is doped only from half by blocking the passage of hydrogen to other half so the interplay between the insulating phase and hydrogenated conductive phase can be observed. As the analysis tool, TEM is used on this sample. Using a two-terminal device of a VO2 crystal, the effects of hydrogenation on the electronic properties have also been studied. Overall this thesis introduces a new method for CVD growth of VO2 which is used in various applications such as Hall-effect experiments, two terminal devices and TEM studies. To control the growth process the interplay between oxygen and surface chemistry of sapphire, silica, Si and quartz substrates have been investigated. With these studies a better understanding of the mechanics of growth is intended.
Open Access
Effects of thickness on the metal-insulator transition in free-standing vanadium dioxide nanocrystals
(American Chemical Society, 2017) Fadlelmula, M. M.; Sürmeli, E. C.; Ramezani, M.; Kasırga, T. S.
Controlling solid state phase transitions via external stimuli offers rich physics along with possibilities of unparalleled applications in electronics and optics. The well-known metal-insulator transition (MIT) in vanadium dioxide (VO2) is one instance of such phase transitions emerging from strong electronic correlations. Inducing the MIT using electric field has been investigated extensively for the applications in electrical and ultrafast optical switching. However, as the Thomas-Fermi screening length is very short, for considerable alteration in the material’s properties with electric field induced MIT, crystals below 10 nm are needed. So far, the only way to achieve thin crystals of VO2 has been via epitaxial growth techniques. Yet, stress due to lattice mismatch as well as interdiffusion with the substrate complicate the studies. Here, we show that free-standing vapor-phase grown crystals of VO2 can be milled down to the desired thickness using argon ion-beam milling without compromising their electronic and structural properties. Among our results, we show that even below 4 nm thickness the MIT persists and the transition temperature is lowered in two-terminal devices as the crystal gets thinner. The findings in this Letter can be applied to similar strongly correlated materials to study quantum confinement effects.
Open Access
Exceptional adaptable MWIR thermal emission for ordinary objects covered with thin VO2 film
(Elsevier Ltd, 2021-01-25) Durna, Yılmaz; Kocer, Hasan; Aydın, Koray; Cakir, Mehmet Cihan; Soydan, Mahmut Can; Odabasi, Oguz; Işık, Halil; Ozbay, Ekmel
Monotonous thermal radiation emitted from an ordinary object can be brought into a dynamic and versatile form that can be shaped according to the application area with the ingenious design of the surface coatings. Building the coatings with phase change materials provides exceptional and surprising properties in terms of tunability, adaptability and multifunctionality. In this paper, we investigate the thermal radiation properties in the MWIR band through comprehensive thermographic measurements and theoretical methods while a thin (similar to 90 nm thick) vanadium dioxide (VO2) layer on the sapphire substrate (VO2 thin film) is placed on different ordinary objects under heating/cooling conditions. It is indicated that the emission of the metal object (low emittance) can be boosted and the emission of the blackbody-like object (high emittance) can be suppressed at the relevant temperatures. The thermal emission of the objects covered with thin VO2 film at high temperatures (>75 degrees C) is determined by only the VO2 thin film, since the VO2 layer is completely metallized and the MWIR radiation of the underlying object is masked. When the actual temperature of the object behaving like a blackbody rises up to 95 degrees C, the temperature detected in the MWIR thermal camera is reduced by more than 20% to approx. 75 degrees C due to the VO2 thin film on this object, providing thermal camouflage. It is experimentally and theoretically revealed that the underlying physical mechanism on these strange results is associated with the drastic change in the infrared optical parameters of the VO2 as a result of the applied temperature. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Open Access
Experiments on strongly correlated materials: magneto-transport properties of VO2 AND V2O3
(2019-09) Sürmeli, Engin Can
Vanadium oxides provide unusual electrical and magnetic phenomena emerging from strong electronic correlations, which include, among other things, a thermally induced metal-insulator transition (MIT). Investigation of the changes in carrier concentration and mobility across the MIT in vanadium oxides, such as vanadium dioxide (VO2) and vanadium sesquioxide (V2O3), carries great importance for understanding the micromechanisms behind suchfirst-order phase transitions. A well-known approach to measuring such parameters in semiconductor materials is Hall effect measurement. So far, magnetotransport studies have only been conducted on polycrystalline thinfilms of VO2/V2O3. As a result, reports on the Hall mobility of these materials often contradict with each other due to the non-uniform stress building on the crystal by adhesion to the substrate. Thus, a thorough investigation of Hall effect measurements on single-crystalline, stress-free VO2 nanobeams and V2O3 nanoplates is required. However, achieving this task is not a straightforward process. First of all, the relatively small size of nanobeams compared to the epitaxialfilms creates the necessity to utilize a bridge-type Hall-bar shaping of the crystal. Additionally, in order to produce a stress-free environment, the crystals must be detached from the substrate and transferred to an atomically at surface, such as hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). Therefore, the device fabrication method demands many steps despite that VO2 is a very fragile material. In this work, we provide a new fabrication method for shaping VO2 and V2O3 into Hall-bar structure via Gallium and Argon-ion milling while inducing minimal damage on the crystal. We also investigate the strain level of shaped crystals and provide methods to prevent cracking in the devices upon structural phase As a second objective, we investigate the resistivity behavior and magnetic response of VO2 nanobeams at low temperature ranges. We show that the high magnetoresistance of VO2 creates demand for very high magneticfields in the Hall effect measurements. Finally, we demonstrate a Hall effect measurement on an as-grown V2O3 nanoplatelet across its phase transition.
Open Access
Investigation of the effects of thickness on the metal-insulator transition in vanadium dioxide nanocrystals, and development of a novel vanadium dioxide mott field-effect transistor
(2017-07) Fadlelseed, Mustafa Mohieldin Fadlelmula
Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is a material that has attracted a lot of attention for its prospective potential to be utilized in the eld of electrical and ultrafast optical switching in one hand, and for the fundamental physics that can be revealed through studying this strongly correlated material on the other hand. One of the most attractive qualities of VO2 is the metal-insulator transition (MIT) which takes place slightly above room temperature in this material. Controlling such phase transition through external stimuli would open unprecedented avenues of electrical and optical applications. However, thin VO2 nanocrystal are required to overcome the limitation imposed thought the Thomas-Fermi screening length which limits the changes and the control that external electrical stimuli would have on any crystal that exceeds this length. The screening length in VO2 is known to be no more than 6 nm. Here, we avoided the use of epitaxial and sputtered lms for the complications in such materials that arise from the stress due to lattice mismatch and the interdi usion with substrates in epitaxial lms, and the polycrystalline nature of sputtered lms. In this work, vapor-phase grown VO2 nanocrystals are used instead. One reason behind this is that unlike epitaxial lms vapor-phase grown VO2 nanocrystals can be released out of the growth substrate and transferred in order to eliminate the stress induced on the crystals due to adhesion to the substrate. The main shortcoming of this type of crystals, which is addressed thoroughly in this study, is that vapor-phase grown VO2 nanocrystals are produced with dimensions no less than 30 nm due to the lack of thickness control in physical vapor deposition technique. Mainly in this study, a systematic method to mill down vapor-phase grown VO2 nanocrystals to sub-5 nm thicknesses is developed. Ar-ion milling is utilized to achieve this goal. Photoresist protection and shadowing methods are introduced and used to reveal the etch rate of VO2 nanocrystals which is found to be equal to 3.3 0:3 nm/min using ion-gun energy of 1 KeV with medium monatomic ux. Our results show some surface damage caused by the Ar-ions bombardment that is limited maximum to the top 5.6 nm of the surface of the etched crystals. This damage and related changes in the electrical properties in the milled crystals are completely eliminated by short duration treatment in a 37% hydrochloric acid (HCl(aq)) solution of these crystals. The results presented here in this regards show complete recovery of the relative order of changing in resistance that accompanies the MIT of treated etched crystals when compared to their pristine form. The last part of this study is dedicated to the investigation of implementing mill down vapor-phase grown VO2 nanocrystals in possible prospective applications. Mainly, the use of these crystals in constructing Mott-Field E ect Transistors (Mott-FETs) is investigated. Further investigation are yet to be done in this regards in order to draw a nal conclusion in the possibility of using VO2 nanocrystals in reliable Mott-FETs. However, the results presented here along with the suggestions related to the fabrication of vapor-phase grown VO2 nanocrystals based three-terminal devices are of a vital importance in setting directions for future works.
Open Access
Mid-infrared adaptive thermal camouflage using a phase-change material coupled dielectric nanoantenna
(Institute of Physics Publishing Ltd., 2021-04-23) Buhara, Ebru; Ghobadi, Amir; Khalichi, Bahram; Kocer, Hasan; Özbay, Ekmel
Recently, camouflage technology has attracted researchers' attention in a large variety of thermal applications. As a special phase change material (PCM), vanadium dioxide (VO2) is an excellent candidate for the studies conducted on thermal camouflage technology. VO2 has a transition from the insulator phase to the metal phase with the increase of the temperature. With regards to this unique feature, VO2 can contribute dynamic properties to the camouflage design. In this paper, a PCM–dielectric based metamaterial mid-infrared adaptive thermal camouflage nanoantenna is designed to perfectly mimic the atmospheric windows. The adaptive property of the proposed structure is obtained by using an ultrathin VO2 interlayer embedded within the grating. The spectral responses of the structure are computed using the finite difference time domain method, and the invisibility of the structure is proved using power calculations in the different mid-infrared regions.
Open Access
Plasmonic metamaterial based structures for designing of multiband and thermally tunable light absorbers, multiple thermal infrared emitter, and high-contrast asymmetric transmission optical diode
(2021-07) Osgouei, Ataollah Kalantari
Metamaterials with sub-wavelength nanostructures refer to a class of synthetic materials that possess exotic electromagnetic properties which cannot be observed with natural materials. Negative refractive index, asymmetric light transmission, invisible cloaking, and lasing are examples of these attributes. Among these possible applications, the concept of light confinement and harvesting by subwavelength structures have attracted considerable attention due to their widespread applications ranging from thermal emission, optical modulator, sensing, and photodetectors. Here, we propose and design plasmonic metamaterials with subwavelength structures in four different application areas, namely 1) Hybrid indium tin oxide-Au metamaterial absorber in the visible and near-infrared ranges for selective thermal emissions and sensors. 2) Active tuning from narrowband to broadband absorbers using a sub-wavelength VO2 for optical modulator. 3) A spectrally selective nanoantenna emitter compatible with multiple thermal infrared applications. 4) Diode like high-contrast asymmetric transmission of linearly polarized waves. In the first work, we propose a multi-band Metamaterial Perfect absorber (MPA) with two narrowband absorption responses that are centered on the visible and near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths [773 􀀁􀀂 and 900 􀀁􀀂, respectively] and a broadband absorptive characteristic in another window in the NIR region [ranging from 1,530 􀀁􀀂 to 2,700 􀀁􀀂 with a bandwidth of 1,170 􀀁􀀂]. The MPA comprises a periodic array of self-aligned hybrid indium tin oxide (ITO)-Au split-ring-resonators that are separated from an optically thick bottom reflector with a SiO2 layer. Based on numerical calculations, which are accompanied with a semi-analytical examination, we find that the dual narrowband and broadband responses are attributed to the hybridization of the optical responses of gold as a plasmonic material with the ones of ITO. Note that ITO acts as a low-loss dielectric in the visible range and a lossy plasmonic material in the NIR region. Moreover, due to the applied symmetry in the unit cell of the metamaterial, the proposed MPA represents polarization insensitive and omnidirectional absorptive features. The proposed metastructure can find potential applications in selective thermophotovoltaic devices, thermal emitters, and sensors. In the second work, we propose an MPA with diverse functionalities enabled by vanadium dioxide (VO2) embedded in a metal-dielectric plasmonic structure. For the initial design purpose, a Silicon (Si) nanograting on a Silver (Ag) mirror is proposed to have multiple resonant responses in the near infrared (NIR) region. Then, the insertion of a thin VO2 layer at the right position enables the design to act as an on/off switch and resonance tuner. In the insulator phase of VO2, in which the permittivity data of VO2 is similar to that of Si, a double strong resonant behavior is achieved within the NIR region. By increasing the temperature, the state of VO2 transforms from insulator to metallic so that the absorption bands turn into three distinct resonant peaks with close spectral positions. Upon this transformation, a new resonance emerges and the existing resonance features experience blue/red shifts in the spectral domain. The superposition of these peaks makes the overall absorption bandwidth broad. Although Si has a small thermo-optic coefficient, owing to strong light confinement in the ultrasmall gaps, a substantial tuning can be achieved within the Si nanogratings. Therefore, the proposed hybrid design can provide multi-resonance tunable features to cover a broad range and can be a promising strategy for the design of linearly thermal-tunable and broadband MPAs. Owing to the proposed double tuning feature, the resonance wavelengths exhibits great sensitivity to temperature, covering a broad wavelength range. Overall, the proposed design strategy demonstrates diverse functionalities enabled by the integration of a thin VO2 layer with plasmonic absorbers. In the third work, we design a wavelength-selective nanoantenna emitter based on the excitation of gap-surface plasmon modes using a metal–insulator–metal configuration (silicon dioxide (SiO2) sandwiched between silver (Ag) layers) for satisfying multiple infrared applications. The proposed design, which is called design I, realizes triple narrowband perfect absorptions at the resonance wavelengths of 1524 nm, 2279 nm, and 6000 nm, which perfectly match the atmospheric absorption bands while maintaining relatively low emissivity in the atmospheric transparency windows of 3 − 5 􀀃m and 8 − 12 􀀃m. Later, the functionality of design I is extended, which is called design II, to include a broadband absorption at the near-infrared region to minimize the solar irradiation reflection from the nanoantenna emitter. Finally, single- and three-layer graphene are introduced to provide a real-time tuning of the infrared signature of the proposed nanoantenna emitter (design II). It is also demonstrated that the three-layer graphene structure can suppress an undesired absorption resonance wavelength related to the intrinsic vibrational modes (optical phonons) of the SiO2 layer by 53.19% compared to 25.53% for the single-layer one. The spectral analysis of design I is validated using both analytical and numerical approaches where the numerical simulation domain is extended for the analysis of design II. The thermal characteristic analyses of design I and design II (without/with graphene layers) reveal that infrared signatures of the blackbody radiation are significantly reduced for the whole wavelength spectrum at least by 96% and 91% within a wide temperature ranging from room temperature to 500 􀀄, respectively. In the fourth and final work, we present a narrow-band optical diode with a high-contrast forward-to-backward ratio at the near-infrared (NIR) region. The design has a forward transmission of approximately 88%, and a backward one of less than 3%, yielding a contrast ratio of greater than 14.5 dB at a wavelength of 1550 nm. The structure is composed of a one-dimensional diffraction grating on top of a dielectric slab waveguide, both of which are made of silicon nitride (Si3N4), and all together are placed over a silver (Ag) thin film embedded on a dielectric substrate. Utilizing a dielectric-based diffraction grating waveguide on a thin silver layer leads to the simultaneous excitation of two surface plasmon modes known as long- and short-range surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at both interfaces of the metallic layer. The plasmon-tunneling effect, which is the result of the coupling of SPPs excited at the upper interface of the metallic layer to the radiation modes, provides a high asymmetric transmission (AT) property. The spectral response of the proposed high-contrast AT device is verified using both rigorous coupled-wave analysis as an analytical approach and finite difference time domain as a numerical one.
Open Access
Visualization of one-dimensional diffusion and spontaneous segregation of hydrogen in single crystals of VO2
(Institute of Physics Publishing, 2016-07) Kasirga, T. S.; Coy, J. M.; Park, J. H.; Cobden, D. H.
Hydrogen intercalation in solids is common, complicated, and very difficult to monitor. In a new approach to the problem, we have studied the profile of hydrogen diffusion in single-crystal nanobeams and plates of VO2, exploiting the fact that hydrogen doping in this material leads to visible darkening near room temperature connected with the metal-insulator transition at 65 ï¿½C. We observe hydrogen diffusion along the rutile c-axis but not perpendicular to it, making this a highly one-dimensional diffusion system. We obtain an activated diffusion coefficient ∼ 0.01 e-0.6eV/kBT cm2s-1, applicable in metallic phase. In addition, we observe dramatic supercooling of the hydrogen-induced metallic phase and spontaneous segregation of the hydrogen into stripes implying that the diffusion process is highly nonlinear, even in the absence of defects. Similar complications may occur in hydrogen motion in other materials but are not revealed by conventional measurement techniques.