Ordering Phenomena in Transition Metal Oxides

Materials Design using Correlated Oxides, or: Why Intelligent Windows may look Dirty   

Materials with strong electronic Coulomb interactions play an increasing role in modern materials applications.  ''Thermochromic'' systems, which 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, for example, has been proposed for use in numerous applications, ranging from anti-laser shields to ''intelligent'' windows, which 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.