On the temperature dependence of the heterostructure period near the metal-semiconductor phase transition in a vanadium dioxide film

The effect of the nonlocality of the metallic-state instability upon the formation of semiconducting domains is considered theoretically in terms of the “strain” theory of the formation of superlattices consisting of alternating metallic and semiconducting phases in a vicinity of the critical point of the thermodynamically equilibrium phase transition metal-semiconductor in single-crystal vanadium oxide films. The above effect is shown to lead to the stabilization of a heterostructure in the region where the dimensions of the semiconducting and metallic domains are approximately equal. The obtained theoretical temperature dependence of the heterostructure period d is compared with the experimental data.