Thermochromic VO2-based coatings deposited by roll-to-roll high power impulse magnetron sputtering

Thermochromic vanadium dioxide (VO2) undergoes a metal-to-semiconductor (MST) transition, a property that can be exploited for energy reduction in buildings in smart windows. We present thermochromic VO2-based films prepared in a roll-to-roll process on ultra-thin glass (0.1 mm) with High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) without any post annealing. We characterized the film structure with X-ray diffraction, the stoichiometry by Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry, and the optical properties with spectrophotometry. The selected films (over 2.6 m x 0.3 m), sputtered from a V-metallic tube target doped with 1.2 at.% of W (V-W target), show a transition temperature of 28 °C and 34 °C, a luminous transmittance over 50% and a modulation of the solar energy transmittance of about 7 and 10%. We monitor the deposition control parameters in the roll-to-roll process with optical emission spectroscopy, and show that both the process parameters and target history impact the thermochromic properties. Finally, we extract the charge carrier concentration and mobility by modelling the transmittance and reflectance spectra, which indicates that the VO2-coating has a slight sub-stoichiometric character.