화학공학소재연구정보센터
Thin Solid Films, Vol.519, No.5, 1578-1582, 2010
Electrochromic properties of Ni(V)O-x films deposited via reactive magnetron sputtering with a 8V-92Ni alloy target
NiOx has been extensively used as complementary counter electrochromic (EC) layer in smart windows. Reactive sputter deposition for obtaining NiOx layer using metallic Ni targets has been very often considered, however, the ferromagnetic property of metallic Ni failed to be applied by conventional magnetron enhancement, particularly when considering large-area deposition. To overcome this, 8 at.% V is alloyed into Ni target for eliminating the ferromagnetism, and Ni(V)O-x films are deposited via the reactive magnetron sputter technique in this study. Microstructure and the related EC properties were investigated. Experimental results show that the sputtering erosion of the non-ferromagnetic Ni(V) target surface becomes controllable as opposed to the pure Ni target. The Ni(V)O-x film deposited at the working atmosphere of 133 Pa and oxygen flow ratio of 40% exhibits the highest optical transmission change (colored to bleached). The half device assembled with a 200 nm-thick film presents the shortest response time (3 s for coloring, 2 s for bleaching) and the greatest optical transmittance change in visible region (69.5% for bleached, 42.0% for colored). This study demonstrates that alloying 8 at.% V as a de-ferromagnetiser in Ni target does not observably affect the electrochromic properties of deposits. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.