The synergistic effect of Ta-doping and antireflective TaOx layer on the thermochromic VO2 thin films for smart windows

Abstract

Current efforts to promote the use of VO2 materials as a promising candidate for thermochromic smart windows continue to be hindered by the low luminous transmittance (Tlum), the limited solar modulation ability (ΔTsol), the high phase transition temperature (Tt, ∼68 °C) and the wide thermal hysteresis (ΔT). The present work addresses these issues by fabricating an antireflective TaOx layer on the Ta-doped VO2 (i.e., VO2(Ta)) thin films. The VO2(4.35 at% Ta) thin films with low Tt of 29.87 °C and narrowed ΔT of almost zero were grown on glass substrates by magnetron sputtering at room temperature followed by rapid thermal annealing. However, the VO2(Ta) thin films show slightly enhanced Tlum of 38.31 % compared with undoped VO2 films (35.46 %) and decreased the ΔTsol by 1.83 %. The thermochromic properties are further enhanced by depositing the antireflective TaOx layer onto the VO2(Ta) thin film by reactive magnetron sputtering, which significantly increases the Tlum from 38.31 % to 48.58 %, marginally decreases the ΔTsol from 4.44 % to 4.12 %, and maintain the Tt and ΔT constant. These results verify the possibility of developing VO2 films with simultaneously increased optical transmittance, decreased Tt to suitable values, and extremely narrow ΔT by using the synergistic effect of element doping and constructing an antireflective layer.