Optical and electrical performance of thermochromic V2O3 thin film fabricated by magnetron sputtering

Abstract

V2O3 was recognized as one of the clearest examples of Mott-Hubbard physics but was rarely treated as transmittance modulating coatings based on the metal-insulator transition. Here, we deposited high quality epitaxial V2O3 thin films on sapphire (001) substrates as well as polycrystalline V2O3 films on glass or Si substrates, measured the optical properties during cooling and heating, and discussed the modulating ability using fully reversible optical hysteresis loops. Meanwhile, we also optimized the electrical performance of V2O3/SiNx/Si samples by W-Ti co-doping. The obtained co-doped V2O3 film shows a relatively high temperature coefficient resistance of −8.1%/K at 80 K without hysteresis loops, which exhibits great potential in high sensitivity thermal resistor devices. Our work provides a comprehensive scenario of the V2O3 thin film physics.