Transparent energy-saving glass with high resistance to solar heat

Abstract

We design and fabricate a planar energy-saving glass with high transmission of visible light and a high resistance to infrared solar heat. The proposed glass is designed by combining a photonic crystal structure made of alternating low- and high-index dielectrics and a dielectric/metal/dielectric multilayers deposited on conventional glass substrates. After delicate optimizations, a high weight-averaged transmission of infrared solar energy (17%) and low transmission of ultraviolet light (14%) is obtained while retaining over 83% transmission of visible light. As a result, we achieve a high energy-saving efficiency of 83%, which is about 30% higher than that of uncoated glass. The proposed nanofabrication-free energy-saving design is expected to have promising applications in reducing energy consumption of buildings, cars, etc.