Electron-Proton Co-doping-Induced Metal-Insulator Transition in VO2 Film via Surface Self-Assembled l-Ascorbic Acid Molecules

Charge doping is an effective way to induce the metal-insulator transition (MIT) in correlated materials for many important utilizations, which is however practically limited by problem of low stability. An electron-proton co-doping mechanism is used to achieve pronounced phase modulation of monoclinic vanadium dioxide (VO2) at room temperature. Using l-ascorbic acid (AA) solution to treat VO2, the ionized AA(-) species donate electrons to the adsorbed VO2 surface. Charges then electrostatically attract surrounding protons to penetrate, and eventually results in stable hydrogen-doped metallic VO2. The variations of electronic structures, especially the electron occupancy of V 3d/O 2p hybrid orbitals, were examined by synchrotron characterizations and first-principle theoretical simulations. The adsorbed molecules protect hydrogen dopants from escaping out of lattice and thereby stabilize the metallic phase for VO2.