Deposition of thermochromic vanadium dioxide thin films by reactive high power impulse magnetron sputtering

• Vanadium dioxide exhibits a reversible phase transition from semiconducting state (monoclinic structure) to a metallic state (tetragonal structure) at ~68 oC. This so-called metal-insulator transition (MIT) entails thermochromic behavior manifested by large changes in optical properties, such as high infrared transmittance modulation in thin films, thereby making VO2-based films a suitable candidate for optical switching applications such as self-tunable infrared filters. Thermochromic VO2 thin films have been widely investigated for optical applications, but high growth temperatures (> 400 oC) required for synthesizing crystalline VO2 thin films, high MIT temperature (68 oC) as well as low visible transmittance (typically ~50%) limit their applicability for example for energy efficient smart windows. Synthesis of metal-oxide thin films using highly ionized vapor fluxes has been shown to facilitate low-temperature film growth as well as control over phase formation and resulting film properties. In the present work, we synthesize VO2 thin films by use of highly ionized vapor fluxes that are generated by high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS). In order to establish a correlation between the plasma and film properties, we investigate the discharge characteristics by analyzing the discharge current-voltage characteristics under varied process parameters such as peak-power, pulse-width and gas phase composition and grow VO2 thin films under suitable process conditions. We investigate the effect of growth temperature (room temperature to 500 oC), energy of the deposition flux (controlled by substrate bias potential) and type of substrate (Si, glass, ITO-coated glass) on crystallinity, phase formation and on optical properties (visible transmittance and infrared modulation) of the resulting thin films. For reference, the discharge characteristics and properties of films deposited by pulsed direct current magnetron sputtering are also studied.         

Ämnesord

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Materialteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Materials Engineering (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Thermochromic VO2; low-temperature film synthesis; ionized PVD; HiPIMS

Engineering Science with specialization in Materials Science

Teknisk fysik med inriktning mot materialvetenskap

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