Thermochromic VO2based sandwich structure Ag/Al2O3/VO2with low solar absorption and tunable emittance for spacecraft

• Main Authors: Jin, H. (Author), Li, D. (Author), Li, J. (Author), Ling, C. (Author), Wang, B. (Author), Wang, X. (Author), Yang, J. (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Institute of Physics Inc. 2022
• Subjects: Ag/Al2O3; Control systems; Emittances; Infrared emittance; Magnetron-sputtering; Si substrates; Solar absorption; Spacecraft thermal control; Temperature control; Thermal control systems; Thermo-chromic; Tunables; Vanadium dioxide
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher
• ISBN: 00218979 (ISSN)
• DOI: 10.1063/5.0084341

The smart radiator device (SRD) with low solar absorption (αs) and large infrared emittance modulation (Δϵ) is desirable to a spacecraft thermal control system. In this work, the SRD was fabricated through depositing the Ag/Al2O3/VO2 triple-layer film on the Si substrate by magnetron sputtering. The properties of the SRD devices were optimized by tuning the thickness of the VO2 layer, and a fantastic SRD device was acquired, which showed low αs, high Δϵ, and intense high-temperature infrared emittance (ϵHT). For the device with a VO2 layer of 50 nm thickness, αs was as low as 29.7% and Δϵ reached 0.53 with ϵHT up to 0.87. The triple-layer film device shows great potential for applications in the spacecraft thermal control system. © 2022 Author(s).