Synthesis and characterization of MoO3-WO3 composite thin films by liquid phase deposition technique: Investigation of its photochromic properties

In order to achieve high colouration efficiency, MoO (3) -WO (3) composite thin films have been successfully deposited on sodium silicate glass and silicon wafer (111) at 30 C by a very simple novel wet process known as liquid phase deposition. The deposited films were annealed at different temperatures and characterized by carrying out SEM, EDAX, UV-vis and XRD analyses. The EDAX and SEM analyses support the structure and existence of peaks corresponding to Mo, W and O. X-ray diffraction studies showed that MoO (3) -WO (3) is amorphous at lower temperature and turns crystalline at higher annealing temperature and suggested the mixture of two crystalline phases such as orthorhombic-monoclinic. Photochromic properties of the MoO (3) -WO (3) composite films were studied in the spectral region 400-1200 nm by illuminating them in polychromatic light. The photochromic behaviour is observed to be more effective in composites films in visible region.