An Overview of Chromic Transition Metal Oxide Thin Films

Transition metal oxides constitute an important materials platform for chromic phenomena because their optical response is strongly coupled to the changes in electronic structure, phase state, carrier concentration, and defect chemistry. This review discusses selected transition metal oxide thin films, with emphasis on VO2 and other vanadium oxides, WO3, NiO, and TiO2. The review summarizes the structural and electronic characteristics of these representative oxide systems and highlights the role of phase composition, crystal structure, oxygen non-stoichiometry, and defect chemistry in determining their optical response. The main thin film preparation routes, including pulsed laser deposition, magnetron sputtering, sol–gel and aerosol spray methods, atomic layer deposition, chemical vapor deposition, electrochemical routes, and molecular beam epitaxy, are reviewed with respect their influence on obtained thin films. Particular attention is given to applications in thermochromic VO2-and electrochromic WO3/NiO-based smart windows, and transition metal oxide-based gasochromic hydrogen sensors. Key challenges related to transition temperature tuning, luminous transmittance, solar modulation, optical contrast, cycling stability, ion transport and large-area integration are also discussed. Overall this review provides a comparative overview of selected transition metal oxide thin films by connecting material chemistry and physics, thin film preparation technology and functionality.