Polarized Raman Scattering In Micrometer-Sized Crystals Of Triclinic Vanadium Dioxide

Triclinic vanadium dioxide VO2 (T) films were produced using cathodic arc deposition. Under certain conditions, the film growth on sapphire substrates Al2O3 (001) is associated with the formation of triclinic monocrystals with lateral sizes of several tens of micrometers. Borders between different crystallites can be determined by Raman mapping analysis. X-ray diffraction measurements revealed that the micrometer-sized monocrystals had two different orientations-epitaxial (002) and non-epitaxial (201). The film was studied by polarized micro-Raman spectroscopy, which can be used to determine the orientation of any single crystallite. The Raman tensor elements of the VO2 (T) phase were determined, and it was shown that though crystallographically triclinic VO2 cell could be fitted by monoclinic one with a high degree of precision, such monoclinic approximation was not valid in terms of Raman spectroscopy. Contrary to the two types of phonons expected for the monoclinic crystal [having five nonzero (four independent) or four nonzero (two independent) Raman tensor elements], all phonons in VO2 (T) have nine (six independent) generally nonzero tensor components.