The Design Of Infrared Mirror Coatings For The Enhanced Performance Of Incandescent Lighting

Herein we present the design of infrared mirror coatings for the enhanced performance of incandescent lighting. We consider single and stacked dielectric mirrors comprised of alternating layers of TCO and SiO2 nanoparticle films to function as infrared mirrors that reduce heat losses in incandescent lights. In this work, thin-film theory was employed to develop MATLAB code that calculates the reflectance and transmittance spectra of dielectric mirrors. In order to validate the MATLAB code, we compared our results to experimental results reported in the literature as well as results calculated using COMSOL Multiphysics software. Our results show that an infrared dielectric mirror coated onto the glass bulb of an incandescent light can increase its efficiency by ~32 %. However, stacked dielectric mirror coatings prevent a significant portion of visible light from transmitting through the glass bulb, and consequently decrease the efficiency of incandescent lights by ~46 %.