Preparation of VO₂/graphene/SiC film by water vapor oxidation

Abstract Vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) has attracted extensive attention due to the specific metal-insulator phase transition as well as the wide device applications. The practical performance of VO 2 -based device strongly depends on the quality of VO 2 , since the higher quality of VO 2 film always shows much more pronounced phase transition behavior. Thus, the preparation of high quality VO 2 film is essential and highly desirable. In this work, we have prepared high-quality VO 2 film on SiC substrate by water vapor oxidation with graphene (G) buffer layer, which showed excellent phase transformation properties. Compared with the VO 2 /SiC sample without G buffer layer, the VO 2 /G/SiC films show the resistance changes up to four-orders of magnitude across the phase transition boundary and superior optoelectronic properties, which indicates the significant role of G layer in the film growth process. The current study not only provides an economical and feasible method for VO 2 /G/SiC thin film preparation with high quality, but also supply some clues for the application of G-based VO 2 devices in the future.