Vanadium oxides are an important class of materials with a large diversity of physical andchemical properties which derive from a range of single or mixed valences and a large variety ofstructures. They are already being used in many technological applications such as electrical andoptical switching devices, light detectors, temperature sensors, etc. There has been a greatinterest in a particular phase, VO2(M), due to its thermochromic behaviour near room temperaturewhich allows the development of smart windows with active control of the solar spectrum, forenergy efficiency purposes. However, stoichiometric VO2 is difficult to deposit because of anarrow stability range due to the complex vanadium–oxygen reactive system. In this work,vanadium oxide thin films were synthesised on glass substrates by reactive pulsed direct currentmagnetron sputtering from a vanadium metal target in an O2/Ar atmosphere. Different processingconditions have been chosen in order to evaluate their influence on the crystal phases formed,surface morphologies and thicknesses and optical performance. The films were characterised byX-ray diffractometry in order to examine the crystal structure and identify the phases present indifferent films. The obtained VO2(M) films were thereafter analysed in terms of surfacemorphology by scanning electron microscopy and the characteristic reversible semiconductor-metal transition of the VO2 films was evaluate by optical spectrophotometry in the ultraviolet-visible-near infrared.
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