Coupled oscillations of VO2-based layered structures: Experiment and simulation approach

Vanadium dioxide (VO2) film was deposited on a conductive indium-tin-oxide (ITO) layer on glass by inductively-coupled-plasma (ICP)-assisted rf reactive sputtering. The VO2 film showed insulator–metal transition (IMT) with three orders of magnitude resistance change at around 78 °C. Two VO2-based layered structures (LSs) are capacitively coupled resulting in emerging self-sustaining oscillations up to 1 MHz by adjusting the series resistance and the supplied voltage. Furthermore, we observe weak, chaotic, and strong coupling modes. Our experimental results are corroborated by theoretical circuit simulations that successfully reconstruct the coupled-oscillation phenomena and clarify the mechanisms responsible for the realized synchronization modes. These results will contribute to the physics and engineering application of VO2-based coupled oscillators.