Electrochromic interference filters fabricated from dense and porous tungsten oxide films

Smart windows offer an opportunity to reduce energy consumption. However, the use of multiple optical elements, such as low emittance coatings and electrochromic devices, is detrimental to the luminous transmittance of these high performance windows. Although the addition of antireflective coatings has helped to reduce this problem, some elements, such as high index of refraction materials still give rise to loss of light. We show that replacing the single WO3 active coating, the main component of an electrochromic device, by an appropriately designed electrochromic interference filter can significantly increase the transmittance. This active filter is based on a stack of dense and porous WO3 layers. We first study the effect of porosity on the physical and electrochromic properties of WO3 prepared by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. We demonstrate that the overlying dense coating does not inhibit the coloration of the underlying porous coating. The best performing films are combined into a 27 layer quarter-wave interference filter which is shown to cycle between bleached and colored states, while providing attractive transmission. Finally, we discuss various filter designs which can increase the transmission of an electrochromic device in its bleached state, as well as the potential use of active filters for optical security devices possessing two levels of authentication. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.