Dynamic asymmetric strain imprinted into substrates by an oxide thin film

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Kisiel, Elliot; Pofelski, Alexandre; Salev, Pavel; Qiu, Erbin; Reisbick, Spencer; Liu, Chuhang; Glatz, Andreas; Poudyal, Ishwor; He, Wei; Basak, Rourav; Yay, Kaan Alp; Li, Junjie; Patel, Umeshkumar; Zhang, Zhan; Last, Arndt; Zhu, Yimei; Schuller, Ivan K.; Islam, Zahir; Frano, Alex
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California San Diego; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Argonne National Laboratory; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Brookhaven National Laboratory; University of Denver; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Argonne National Laboratory; Stanford University; Stanford University; United States Department of Energy (DOE); Stanford University; SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory; Helmholtz Association; Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
• 刊物名称: SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.adt9347
• 发表日期: 2026-07-23
• 页码: 392-397
• 关键词: METAL-INSULATOR-TRANSITION; PHASE-TRANSITION; CHARGE DISPROPORTIONATION; MOTT TRANSITION; field; perovskites; contrast

摘要

In film-substrate systems, the substrate role is often considered to be limited to providing static mechanical constraints. Dynamic film-substrate interactions when a structural change in the film modifies the substrate are generally disregarded. Using combined x-ray and electron microscopies, we observed that an electrically induced filament in a vanadium dioxide film created strong asymmetric strain in an underlying sapphire substrate. This asymmetric substrate strain fed back into the film and defined the filament expansion direction, revealing the importance of film-substrate dynamic interactions in determining film functionality. Furthermore, the strain imprint propagated at least tens of micrometers deep into the substrate, exceeding the film thickness by more than 200-fold, potentially enabling substrate functionalization as an active mechanical coupling media in three-dimensional integrated microelectronic architectures.