Gate-tunable gigantic lattice deformation in VO₂

We examined the impact of electric field on crystal lattice of vanadium dioxide (VO₂) in a field-effect transistor geometry by in-situ synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements. Whereas the c-axis lattice parameter of VO₂ decreases through the thermally induced insulator-to-metal phase transition, the gate-induced metallization was found to result in a significant increase of the c-axis length by almost 1% from that of the thermally stabilized insulating state. We also found that this gate-induced gigantic lattice deformation occurs even at the thermally stabilized metallic state, enabling dynamic control of c-axis lattice parameter by more than 1% at room temperature.