Materials design using correlated oxides: Optical properties of vanadium dioxide

¹  Research Institute for Computational Sciences, AIST - Tsukuba, 305-8568 Japan
²  Japan Science and Technology Agency, CREST - Kawaguchi, Japan
³  Centre de Physique Théorique, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS - 91128 Palaiseau Cedex, France, EU

Received: 19 January 2009
Accepted: 9 April 2009

Abstract

Materials with strong electronic Coulomb interactions play an increasing role in modern materials applications. “Thermochromic” systems, that exhibit thermally induced changes in their optical response, provide a particularly interesting case. The optical switching associated with the metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide (VO₂), for example, has been proposed for use in “intelligent” windows that selectively filter radiative heat in hot weather conditions. In this work, we develop the theoretical tools for describing such a behaviour. Using a novel scheme for the calculation of the optical conductivity of correlated materials, we obtain quantitative agreement with experiments for both phases of VO₂. On the example of an optimized energy-saving window setup, we further demonstrate that theoretical materials design has now come into reach, even for the particularly challenging class of correlated electron systems.