Gating Effect on VO2 nanowire by Ionic Liquid

VO2 is a well-known strongly correlated material with insulator-to-metal phase transition at 68 \r{ }C. Below this temperature, VO2 is an insulating material whose temperature dependence behaves like a semiconductor with 0.6 eV band gap. However, such material cannot be gated by traditional method. In our experiment, we applied a new technique, using ionic liquids, to provide a much stronger transverse electric field on the VO2 nanowire. We did not observe obvious gating effect on VO2, but in the meantime, we found that VO2 is sensitive to hydrogen. The hydrogen produced by electrochemistry when applying voltage on the electrolyte (an ionic liquid with water contamination, in this case) can dramatically change the conductance of VO2.