Thickness dependence of the electronic properties in V2O3 thin films

High quality vanadium sesquioxide V(2)O(3) films (170-1100 A) were grown using the pulsed laser deposition technique on (0001)-oriented sapphire substrates, and the effects of film thickness on the lattice strain and electronic properties were examined. X-ray diffraction indicates that there is an in-plane compressive lattice parameter (a), close to -3.5% with respect to the substrate and an out-of-plane tensile lattice parameter (c). The thin film samples display metallic character between 2 and 300 K, and no metal-to-insulator transition is observed. At low temperature, the V(2)O(3) films behave as a strongly correlated metal, and the resistivity (rho) follows the equation rho=rho(0)+AT(2), where A is the transport coefficient in a Fermi liquid. Typical values of A have been calculated to be 0.14 mu Omega cm K(-2), which is in agreement with the coefficient reported for V(2)O(3) single crystals under high pressure. Moreover, a strong temperature dependence of the Hall resistance confirms the electronic correlations of these V(2)O(3) thin film samples. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.