An All-Thin-Film Electrochromic Device Composed of MoO₃--LiBSO--NiO_x Multilayer Structure

An all-thin-film (ATF) electrochromic device for modulating the optical
transmittance is manufactured using magnetron sputtering. The devices
consists of MoO₃ as the main electrochromic layer, LiBO₂+Li₂SO₄(LiBSO) as the ion conductor layer, and NiO_x as the complementary electrochromic layer. Glass covered with indium tin oxide (ITO) is used as the substrate and the ITO film is used as the bottom electrode. The ITO film deposited on the top of the devices is used as the other electrode. The structure and morphology of
the films are characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The devices exhibit good optical properties with low transmittance values in the coloured state, and the optical modulation is measured by spectrophotometer in the wavelength range from 400 to 800nm. The average visible light transmittance reaches 50.2% and 3.7% in bleached and coloured state, respectively. The results indicate that such a monolithic system has great potential to be applied in smart windows.