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Optical properties of photochromic and thermochromic materials
Abstract
The optical properties of some thin film materials can be altered by an external stimulus. Photochromic and thermochromic materials, including inorganic and organic substances, have optical properties that can be changed in a reversible manner by irradiation and temperature respectively. These materials can be used in applications such as radiation or thermal sensors, information storage devices and smart window applications in buildings and cars. In this work, major effort was concentrated on passive thermal control coatings based on photochromic and thermochromic materials. The inorganic photochromic materials were based on tungsten and molybdenum oxide films and the organic photochromic materials included spiropyrans and spirooxazines. In addition, photochromic composite organic-inorganic films and thermochromic vanadium oxide films were prepared. The samples were synthesized using sputtering, sol-gel process, and thermal oxidation. The optical properties were investigated for the first time by ultraviolet/visible/infrared (UV/VIS/IR) spectroscopic ellipsometry, attenuated total reflection (ATR) infrared ellipsometry, spectrophotometry, and X-ray diffraction (XRD). For amorphous oxide films, the oxygen deficiency was important in determining the photochromic properties of the films. In the mid-infrared region, no photochromism was observed for the films. The optical properties of organic-inorganic composite films changed in the VIS/NIR wavelength region markedly in a reversible process, with UV irradiation. The composite films containing tungsten heteropolyoxometalate (HPOM) showed faster coloration and bleaching than pure tungsten oxide films. The composite films with molybdenum HPOM showed faster coloration and much slower bleaching than tungsten HPOM. The spiropyran and spirooxazine doped polymeric films were investigated for the first time using infrared and ATR ellipsometry. The infrared optical functions obtained by ATR measurements were a little smaller than bulk optical functions although the optical functions obtained by standard ellipsometry were consistent with bulk optical functions. UV irradiation caused larger absorption changes in the mid-infrared region in spiropyrans than in spirooxazines. Phase identification of the vanadium oxide films was determined using XRD. The optical functions of some vanadium oxides were calculated using UV/VIS/IR ellipsometry.
Subject Area
Electrical engineering|Materials science|Optics
Recommended Citation
Mo, Yeon-Gon, "Optical properties of photochromic and thermochromic materials" (1999). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9947125.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9947125