Vanadium Dioxide Phase-Change Metamaterials and Radiative Cooling Surfaces
This community develops thin-film materials and engineered metamaterial structures that exploit the phase transition of vanadium dioxide to control thermal radiation, terahertz wave absorption, and solar energy management.
The work centers on vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films, where the material’s insulator-to-metal transition enables switchable optical and thermal properties. Recurring applications include passive radiative cooling surfaces, thermochromic smart windows, and tunable terahertz metamaterial absorbers. Researchers also design broadband perfect absorbers and metasurfaces for mid-infrared and terahertz frequencies, often integrating VO2 with graphene or other 2D materials to achieve dual regulation of absorption and polarization. The underlying mechanism involves exploiting the sharp change in electrical conductivity and dielectric constant during the phase transition to create devices that are temperature-sensitive, switchable, or broadband in their response.
The largest share of this community’s output is found in vanadium research, accounting for 11.4% of all vanadium-related papers tracked, with 4,334 papers in this group. Indium and tin research also appear, each representing 1.0% of their respective element research, with 377 and 367 papers respectively.
The community comprises 10,381 papers, published primarily in Optics & Laser Technology, Optics Express, and Applied Physics Letters.
Recent work continues to focus on tunable terahertz absorbers using VO2-graphene hybrids, broadband solar absorbers based on titanium and indium arsenide metasurfaces, and temperature-switchable narrow-band terahertz devices.