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Preparation Of Electrochromic Metal Oxide Films By Plasma-Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition

1987; SPIE; Volume: 0823; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1117/12.941870

1996-756X

D. K. Benson, C. Edwin Tracy, Jan-Erik Svensson, Bruce E. Liebert,

Gas Sensing Nanomaterials and Sensors

Laboratory procedures have been developed for depositing thin films of electrochromic metal oxides by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PE-CVD). In this process, vapor phase reactants, such as tungsten hexafluotIde, are mixed with oxygen and excited by RF energy at a frequency of 13.56 MHz and power levels up to≈1W/cm 2 substrate area. Large rates of oxide deposition have been achieved (> 8 nm/s) making this process a candidate for high-speed coating of large area substrates, such as window glass. Amorphous WO1 films prepared by PE-CVD have been shown to have electrochromic responses virtually identical to films prepared by vacuum evaporation. The lithium ion diffusion rate, for example, is approximately 1.3 x 10 -11 cm 2 /s at x = 0.03 in Li x WO 3 prepared by PE-CVD. On the other hand, molybdenum oxide films and mixed molybdenum/tungsten oxide films prepared by PE-CVD from the hexafluorides differ markedly from vacuum evaporated films. Their electrochromic responses are spectrally different and are much slower. Lithium ion diffusion rates in such Mo0 3 films are lower by about three orders of magnitude. These differences are tentatively attributed to a large fraction of fluorine (Mo:F ratios of the order of 2:1) which are incorporated into the molybdenum and mixed oxides, but are not incorporated into the tungsten oxides.