Photochromic mechanism in oxygen-containing yttrium hydride thin films: An optical perspective
Montero, José; Martinsen, Fredrik Aleksander; Garcia-Tecedor, M.; Karazhanov, Smagul; Maestre, D.; Hauback, Bjørn; Marstein, Erik Stensrud
Journal article, Peer reviewed
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Date
2017Metadata
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Original version
10.1103/PhysRevB.95.201301Abstract
Oxygen-containing yttrium hydride thin films exhibit photochromic behavior: Transparent thin films reversibly switch from a transparent state to a photodarkened state after being illuminated with UV or blue light. From optical spectrophotometry and ellipsometry measurements of the transparent state and photodarkened state, it is concluded that the photochromic effect can be explained by the gradual growth, under illumination, of metallic domains within the initial wide-band-gap semiconducting lattice. This conclusion is supported by Raman measurements.