Vanadium Dioxide Thin Films for Smart Windows: Numerical Study and Improvement of Their Optical Properties

Abstract

In recent years, both monoclinic (M) and rutile (R) phase vanadium dioxide (VO₂) has attracted considerable interest as a promising candidate for smart windows, owing to the reversible semiconductor-to-metal transition near room temperature. A numerical simulation of the optical properties of VO₂ thin films, including index of refraction, coefficient of extinction, reflectance and transmittance, is reported in this work. For this purpose, we used the Model of Drude-Lorentz to calculate coefficients at from the optical parameters n and k using the determination of the dielectric constant ? ( , T). Given that the semiconductor-metal transition temperature of VO₂ is 68°C, we studied the effect of thickness on the optical properties of VO₂ thin films using transmittance simulations. Hence, a significant change in the optical properties of VO₂ thin films has been revealed, which leads to many interesting applications, especially for smart windows.