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High-Efficiency Magnetron Sputtered Tungsten Oxide Thin-Film Electrochromics with Neon Sputtering
Date Issued
2016
Author(s)
Kumar, KU
Kaushik, DK
Karuppasamy, KM
Subrahmanyam, A
Abstract
Electrochromic materials change color reversibly by applying an external direct current (DC) voltage. One among the many emerging applications of electrochromics is the smart window. The coloration efficiency, the optical color modulation, and the cyclability are the factors that benchmark the performance of the device. Tungsten oxide (WO3-x) is a versatile material, and the reactive DC magnetron sputtering (with argon as sputter gas) technique is common for electrochromics. In the present communication tungsten oxide thin films were prepared by the reactive DC magnetron sputtering technique (at room temperature 300(omicron)K) using neon as the sputter gas. The thickness of the WO3-x thin films vary from 190 nm to 712 nm. These WO3-x thin films were characterized by electrochemical measurements with three electrode electrochemical cells using 1M HCl aqueous electrolyte. The highest coloration efficiency obtained for the neon sputtered WO3-x thin film was 84.5 cm(2)/C. at 550 nm wavelength.