Articles you may be interested inThermochromic VO2 nanorods made by sputter deposition: Growth conditions and optical modeling J. Appl. Phys. 114, 033516 (2013); 10.1063/1.4813876 Effect of O2 gas partial pressure on mechanical properties of Al2O3 films deposited by inductively coupled plasma-assisted radio frequency magnetron sputtering J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 30, 051511 (2012); 10.1116/1.4746013Correlation of temperature response and structure of annealed V O x thin films for IR detector applications Thermochromic thin films of VO 2 were produced by reactive DC magnetron sputtering and were characterized by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray diffraction, spectrophotometry, and resistance measurements. Depositions took place onto substrates of glass with and without layers of electrically conducting ITO (i.e., In 2 O 3 :Sn) and nonconducting SnO 2 . The substrate conditions were of large importance; thus, VO 2 could be prepared on ITO within a significantly wider process window of oxygen partial pressure than for the other substrates and could yield highly granular deposits. VO 2 films on ITO typically showed some lattice compression. Our results are valuable for the preparation and implementation of thermochromic glazings, which are of importance for energy efficient buildings.