Synthesis and electrical properties of cubic NaxWO3 thin films across the metal–insulator transition

Highly oriented (1 0 0) NaxWO3 thin films were fabricated in the composition range 0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.46 by pulsed laser deposition technique. The films showed transition from metallic to insulating behaviour at a critical composition between x = 0.15 and 0.2. The pseudo-cubic symmetry of NaxWO3 thin films across the transition region is desirable for understanding the composition controlled metal–insulator transition in the absence of any structural phase transformation. The electrical transport properties exhibited by these films across the transition regime were investigated. While the resistivity varied as T2 at low temperatures in the metallic regime, a variable range hopping conduction was observed for the insulating samples. For metallic compositions, a non-linear dependence of resistivity in temperature was also observed from 300 to 7 K, whose exponent varied with the composition of the film.