Correlation mechanism of the insulator–metal transition in V$_2$O$_3$ films

A complex character of the mechanism of thermal phase transformations from the insulating phase to the metallic phase has been revealed in thin V$_2$O$_3$ films. The insulator–metal phase transition in V$_2$O$_3$ is shown to consist of two stages: the hysteresis-less temperature-extended electron Mott transition extended in temperature and the stepwise structural Peierls transition with temperature hysteresis. The features of the insulator–metal phase transition revealed for V$_2$O$_3$ are discussed. These features are analyzed on the base of their comparison with characteristic features of analogous phase transition in VO$_2$ films.