Conventional electrochromic devices frequently suffer from poor reliability and poor performance. Improvements are made using entirely solid and inorganic materials. Electrochromic devices are fabricated by forming an ion conducting electronically-insulating interfacial region that serves as an IC layer. In some methods, the interfacial region is formed after formation of an electrochromic and a counter electrode layer. The interfacial region contains an ion conducting electronically-insulating material along with components of the electrochromic and/or the counter electrode layer. Materials and microstructure of the electrochromic devices provide improvements in performance and reliability over conventional devices. In various embodiments, a counter electrode is fabricated to include a base anodically coloring material and one or more additives.

Controllers and control methods apply a drive voltage to bus bars of a thin film optically switchable device. The applied drive voltage is provided at a level that drives a transition over the entire surface of the optically switchable device but does not damage or degrade the device. This applied voltage produces an effective voltage at all locations on the face of the device that is within a bracketed range. The upper bound of this range is associated with a voltage safely below the level at which the device may experience damage or degradation impacting its performance in the short term or the long term. At the lower boundary of this range is an effective voltage at which the transition between optical states of the device occurs relatively rapidly. The level of voltage applied between the bus bars is significantly greater than the maximum value of the effective voltage within the bracketed range.

A process for manufacturing an electrochromic glazing unit includes forming, on one face of a glass sheet, a complete all-solid-state electrochromic stack including in succession a first layer of a transparent conductive oxide; a layer of a cathodically colored mineral electrochromic material to form an electrochromic electrode; a layer of an ionically conductive mineral solid electrolyte; a layer of a cation intercalation material to form a counter electrode; and a second layer of a transparent conductive oxide; then heat treatment of the complete electrochromic stack by irradiation with radiation having a wavelength comprised between 500 and 2000 nm, the radiation originating from a radiating device placed facing the electrochromic stack, a relative movement being created between the radiating device and the substrate so as to raise the electrochromic stack to a temperature at least equal to 300° C. for a brief duration, for example shorter than 100 milliseconds.

Electrochromic devices and methods may employ the addition of a defect-mitigating insulating layer which prevents electronically conducting layers and/or electrochromically active layers from contacting layers of the opposite polarity and creating a short circuit in regions where defects form. In some embodiments, an encapsulating layer is provided to encapsulate particles and prevent them from ejecting from the device stack and risking a short circuit when subsequent layers are deposited. The insulating layer may have an electronic resistivity of between about 1 and 10.sup.8 Ohm-cm. In some embodiments, the insulating layer contains one or more of the following metal oxides: aluminum oxide, zinc oxide, tin oxide, silicon aluminum oxide, cerium oxide, tungsten oxide, nickel tungsten oxide, and oxidized indium tin oxide. Carbides, nitrides, oxynitrides, and oxycarbides may also be used.

An electrochromic device according to an embodiment includes a first transparent conductive layer, an ion storage layer, an electrolyte layer, an electrochromic layer, and a second transparent conductive layer. The electrolyte layer includes a tantalum atom. The electrochromic layer includes a tungsten atom. The ion storage layer includes an iridium atom and a tantalum atom. The ion storage layer is hydrogenated in bleached state and the electrochromic device has a transmittance of 64.1% or more in bleached state. A difference between the transmittance of the electrochromic device in bleached state and the transmittance of the electrochromic device in colored state is 8.4% or more.

A free-standing polymer electrolyte for an electrochromic device includes a polymer network, a plasticizer and an electrolyte salt containing at least one of lithium or sodium ions. The free-standing polymer electrolyte may exclude tetraglyme.

When transitioning an electrochromic (EC) device between two tint levels, a control unit may repeatedly adjust an applied voltage based on a stack voltage of the EC device. The stack voltage of the EC device may be measured and compared to a reference or target stack voltage. The stack voltage may be measured in any of various methods, such as by measuring it directly, via a measured equivalent series resistance, or via an open circuit voltage measurement. The applied voltage may then be changed or adjusted based on the measured stack voltage and the comparison of the stack voltage to the reference value. This process may be repeated multiple times and may essentially be performed continually until the stack voltage attains the desired level or at least attains a level within a predetermine threshold of the desired level.

Conventional electrochromic devices frequently suffer from poor reliability and poor performance. Improvements are made using entirely solid and inorganic materials. Electrochromic devices are fabricated by forming an ion conducting electronically insulating interfacial region that serves as an IC layer. In some methods, the interfacial region is formed after formation of an electrochromic and a counter electrode layer, which are in direct contact with one another. The interfacial region contains an ion conducting electronically insulating material along with components of the electrochromic and/or the counter electrode layer. Materials and microstructure of the electrochromic devices provide improvements in performance and reliability over conventional devices. In addition to the improved electrochromic devices and methods for fabrication, integrated deposition systems for forming such improved devices are also disclosed.

Certain embodiments relate to optical devices and methods of fabricating optical devices that pre-treat a sub-layer to enable selective removal of the pre-treated sub-layer and overlying layers. Other embodiments pertain to methods of fabricating an optical device that apply a sacrificial material layer.

The present invention is an electrochromic device which is provided with a first electrode; an electrochromic layer which is disposed on the first electrode, while containing an organic/metal hybrid polymer that contains at least an organic ligand and a metal ion to which the organic ligand is coordinated; an electrolyte layer which is disposed on the electrochromic layer; a counter electrode material layer which is disposed on the electrolyte layer and contains a conductive polymer; and a second electrode which is disposed on the counter electrode material layer. The conductive polymer may be at least one polymer that is selected from the group consisting of polypyrroles, polyanilines, polythiophenes, poly(p-phenylene)s, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)-poly(styrene sulfonate)s (PEDOT:PSS), polyfluorenes, poly(p-phenylenevinylene)s, polythienylenevinylenes and organic/metal hybrid polymers.