We propose to test a new sputtering method, Biased Target Deposition (BTD), for growth of polycrystalline VO2 thin films. The BTD method has been shown to be more stable and flexible for reactive deposition than previously used techniques, and we test whether VO2 can be driven into different microstructures, hence properties, by varying growth conditions. We focus on the optically-driven insulator-to-metal transition of VO2 when the material is grown on substrates transmissive to long-wavelength infrared (LWIR) radiation, commonly Ge, and seek to understand any observed optically-driven "imprint" aging of the material via microstructural characterization of the "aged" material.
Keywords: Vo2, Infrared, Phase Transition, Optical Switch, Metal-Insulator Transition, Biased Target Deposition, Btd, Lwir, Optically Driven
