Oxyhydride of yttrium (YHO) belongs to an emerging class of materials, with oxide and hydride anions sharingthe same sites in the lattice. Under sunlight irradiation, the material is transparent to visible light with trans-parency exceeding 85% and can absorb about 10% of sunlight. Furthermore, increasing light transmittance in thevisible light enhanced the self-cleaning properties of the coated materials, making these materials promisingcandidates for smart windows applications. However, the light-absorbing properties of the materials wereincreased with exposure time, and in the photodarkening state, they can absorb about 40% of sunlight. Kelvinprobe measurements show work function values between 2.9 and 4.2 eV for YHO, depending on the H2/Arpressure in the deposition chamber. Using the Kelvin probe, we demonstrate that the work function decreaseswith decreasing deposition pressure and hydrogen flow. Measurements under solar light reveal a decrease of workfunction by 0.2 eV followed by a slow relaxation with the light off. Moreover, the self-cleaning test shows that theoxyhydroxide thin films have excellent photocatalytic activity and total self-cleaning in 40 h.