AI 中文总结
该研究通过超过10⁹ K·s⁻¹的快速冷却，在钨取代的VO₂中稳定了亚稳态金属相，确立了元素取代作为金属-绝缘体转变中热淬灭亚稳态的实现途径，拓展了亚稳态相控制至电子相领域。
AI 中文摘要
热淬灭会抑制相变过程中向热力学基态的平衡，从而揭示出结构玻璃、淬灭合金等亚稳态相。这类热淬灭亚稳态是否能在金属-绝缘体转变中实现仍是悬而未决的问题，因为这类转变由集体电子重组而非原子扩散主导。我们证明，超过10⁹ K·s⁻¹的快速冷却可在动力学上规避金属-绝缘体转变，在钨取代的VO₂中稳定出长寿命的亚稳态金属相。温度依赖的弛豫揭示了由钨取代引入热激活势垒的形核主导动力学。我们的结果确立了元素取代作为金属-绝缘体转变中热淬灭亚稳态的实现途径，将亚稳态相控制扩展至电子相领域。
英文摘要
Thermal quenching inhibits equilibration toward the thermodynamic ground state during phase transitions, revealing metastable phases such as structural glasses and quenched alloys. Whether such thermally quenched metastability can be realized in metal-insulator transitions has remained an open question because these transformations are governed by collective electronic reorganization rather than atomic diffusion. We demonstrate that rapid cooling exceeding 10$^9$ K s$^{-1}$ kinetically avoids the metal-insulator transition, stabilizing a long-lived metastable metallic phase in tungsten-substituted VO$_2$. Temperature-dependent relaxation reveals nucleation-dominated kinetics with a thermal activation barrier introduced by tungsten substitution. Our results establish elemental substitution as a route to thermally quenched metastability in metal-insulator transitions, expanding metastable phase control to electronic phases.
