Effect of Fe doping on thermochromic properties of VO2 films

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics 2018-04, Vol.29 (7), p.5501-5508
• Main Authors: Lu, Lulu, Wu, Zhiming, Ji, Chunhui, Song, Meizhen, Feng, Haoqian, Ma, Xueting, Jiang, Yadong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Crystal structure; Direct current; Doping; Glass substrates; Magnetron sputtering; Materials Science; Optical and Electronic Materials; Phase transitions; Properties (attributes); Vanadium dioxide; Vanadium oxides; X ray photoelectron spectroscopy
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-018-8518-1

Vanadium dioxide is a well-known phase transition material which has the potential to be applied in the smart windows. In this work, Fe-doped vanadium dioxide films were successfully prepared on glass substrates at 450 °C annealing temperature by direct current magnetron sputtering. These films were characterized by XRD, Raman shift, XPS and SEM tests. It can be found that Fe doping affects both the surface morphology and the thermochromic properties of the films. It is of great interest to note that the T C drastically reduces which is attributed to the substitution of V 4+ by Fe 3+ in the VO 2 crystal structure. Particularly, when Fe content increases to 9.8%, the lowest T C is 33.5 °C (34.5 °C lower than bulk). Moreover, the luminous transmittance enhances and the solar modulation ability remains at 13.7%, greater than 10%, which is difficult to be achieved by adding other dopants. Such excellent thermochromic properties are good enough for practical application. These features indicate that Fe doping provides a new idea of applying VO 2 to smart windows.