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nanotimes News in Brief

12-03 :: March/April 2012

Researcher Kazuki Tajima, the Energy Control Thin Film Group, the Materials Research Insti- tute for Sustainable Development of the Natio- nal Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, Japan) developed a new fabri- cation technology for switchable mirror devices – an electrochromic device that can switch between the mirror state and the transparent state when a voltage of a few volts is applied.

Functional layers, including a switchable mir- ror layer and an ion storage layer, are formed on transparent substrates, and then these substrates are bonded together with an adhesive electrolyte. The technology has advantages in productivity, cost reduction, stability, and scale-up over the conven- tional device fabrication process, in which functio- nal layers are formed one after another on a single transparent substrate.

Comparison of switchable mirror device fabrication processes. © AIST

Change in the appearance of the developed switchable mirror device (left: mirror state; right: transparent state). © AIST

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