Direct production of thermochromic VO 2 thin film coatings by pulsed laser ablation

Abstract

Experimental morphological, electrical and optical properties of VO 2 thermochromic thin films synthesised by excimer pulsed laser ablation are reported. These thermochromic films were elaborated on three different types of substrates from VO 2 bulk target without any substrate heating or atmosphere control during the deposition process. Irrespective of the nature of the substrate, all films showed a large sharp transition close to that given by perfect bulk VO 2 crystals. Irrespective of the nature of the substrate, these laser-ablated films optically switch abruptly from 28% in the metal state to nearly 72% approximately in the semi-conducting state at 3000 nm upon cooling through the transition well centred around 68°C.