Numerical modelling of copper composite thin films for solar control filter

Abstract

Performance of solar control filter depends strongly on the individual layer thicknesses as well as the quality of their interfaces. In this work, a numerical modeling was designed and implemented to optimize the layer thicknesses of Cu₂O/CuS, Cu₂O/Cu and CuS/Cu thin films for use as solar control filter using transfer matrix. The result shows that for Cu₂O/CuS, with CuS in contact with the substrate, the optimized layer thickness of 110/30nm and for CuS/Cu and Cu₂O/Cu with Cu in contact with the substrate, the optimized layer thickness are 110/30nm and 100/30nm, respectively. The model also predicted transmittances of 67% for Cu₂O/CuS, 42% for CuS/Cu and 64.5% for Cu₂O/Cu at 550nm. A transmittances of 24.9-36.9% of IR radiation for all the films was realized. These results, when compared with previous works indicate the possibility of improvement in the performance of the filters.

Keywords: Solar Control Filter, Transfer Matrix, Infrared, Numerical Modeling, Transmittance