A low-temperature synthesis of strongly thermochromic W and Sr co-doped VO2 films with a low transition temperature

The reversible semiconductor-to-metal transition of vanadium dioxide (VO2) makes VO2-based coatings a promising candidate for thermochromic smart windows, reducing the energy consumption of buildings. We report low-temperature (320 °C) depositions of thermochromic V1−x−yWxSryO2 films with a thickness of 71–73 nm onto 170–175 nm thick Y-stabilized ZrO2 layers on a 1 mm thick conventional soda-lime glass. The developed deposition technique is based on reactive high-power impulse magnetron sputtering with a pulsed O2 flow feedback control allowing us to prepare crystalline W and Sr co-doped VO2 films of the required stoichiometry without any substrate bias or post-deposition annealing. The W doping of VO2 decreases the transition temperature below 25 °C, while the Sr doping of VO2 increases the integral luminous transmittance, Tlum, significantly due to widening of the visible-range optical bandgap, which is consistent with lowering of the absorption coefficient of films. We present the discussion of the effect of the Sr content in the metal sublattice of VO2 on the electronic and crystal structure of V1−x−yWxSryO2 films, and on their temperature-dependent optical and electrical properties. An optimized V0.855W0.018Sr0.127O2 film exhibits a high Tlum = 56.8% and modulation of the solar energy transmittance ΔTsol = 8.3%, which are 1.50 times and 1.28 times, respectively, higher compared with those of the V0.984W0.016O2 film. The achieved results constitute an important step toward a low-temperature synthesis of large-area thermochromic VO2-based coatings for future smart-window applications, as it is easy to further increase the Tlum and ΔTsol by >6% and >3%, respectively, using a 280 nm thick top SiO2 antireflection layer.