Electrical,optical and structural properties of pure and gold-coated VO2 thin films on quartz substrate

In the present study, vanadium dioxide films were grown on quartz glass substrate by reactive KrF laser ablation technique using a vanadium dioxide target. The gold films of various thicknesses were then deposited on the VO₂ film by sputtering technique. Films were characterized by X-ray diffraction to determine crystallography, by four-point probe to determine the electrical property and by double-beam spectrophotometry to determine optical reflection and transmission behaviour in the 200–2500 nm spectral region. The resistance per square of VO₂ thin film decreases by two orders of magnitude across the metal insulator transition (MIT). The optical transmittance and reflectance exhibits, strong temperature dependence in the infrared region without a significant change in the visible region for VO₂ thin films. The presence of gold layer on VO₂ films significantly reduces the resistance per square, the critical temperature and percentage transmittance of the materials.