Strain mediated Filling Control nature of the Metal-Insulator Transition of VO2 and electron correlation effects in nanostructured films

The Metal-Insulator transition (MIT) in VO is characterized by the complex interplay among lattice, electronic and orbital degrees of freedom. In this contribution we investigated the strain-modulation of the orbital hierarchy and the influence over macroscopic properties of the metallic phase of VO such as Fermi Level (FL) population and metallicity, i.e., the material ability to screen an electric field, by means of temperature-dependent X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES) and Resonant Photoemission spectroscopy (ResPES). We demonstrate that the MIT in strained VO is of the Filling Control type, hence it is generated by electron correlation effects. In addition, we show that the MIT in Nanostructured (NS) disordered VO, where the structural phase transition is quenched, is driven by electron correlation. Therefore a fine tuning of the correlation could lead to a precise control of the transition features.