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.

A thin film getter is provided. The thin film getter comprises a substrate and an absorption layer on the substrate, wherein the absorption layer comprises a getter material for absorbing target gas and an auxiliary material for providing a moving path of the target gas, and the getter material can be divided into a plurality of getter regions by the auxiliary material.

Prior electrochromic devices frequently suffer from high levels of defectivity. The defects may be manifest as pin holes or spots where the electrochromic transition is impaired. This is unacceptable for many applications such as electrochromic architectural glass. Improved electrochromic devices with low defectivity can be fabricated by depositing certain layered components of the electrochromic device in a single integrated deposition system. While these layers are being deposited and/or treated on a substrate, for example a glass window, the substrate never leaves a controlled ambient environment, for example a low pressure controlled atmosphere having very low levels of particles. These layers may be deposited using physical vapor deposition. In certain embodiments, the device includes a counter electrode having an anodically coloring electrochromic material in combination with an additive.

A titanium aluminide (TiAl) coating capable of improving high-temperature oxidation resistance of titanium alloys and a preparation method thereof are provided. The TiAl coating includes α-AlF.sub.3 nanoparticles, and a content of the α-AlF.sub.3 nanoparticles is 5-30 vol. % of the TiAl coating. The preparation method of the TiAl coating includes: using a TiAl alloy target and an α-AlF.sub.3 target as raw materials, and performing magnetron sputtering on a substrate surface to prepare a coating; the magnetron sputtering is double-target co-sputtering, and a substrate temperature during the magnetron sputtering is 150° C., the TiAl alloy target is performed direct current sputtering with a power of 0.5-2 kW, and the α-AlF.sub.3 target is performed radio frequency sputtering with a power of 0.07-0.2 kW. After the coating is obtained by the double-target co-sputtering, the obtained coating is heat-treated at 600-800° C. for 5-20 h to obtain a final coating.

A deposition apparatus for cutting tools with a coating film capable of depositing the coating film in an appropriate temperature condition is provided. The deposition apparatus includes: a deposition chamber in which a coating film is formed on the cutting tools; a pre-treatment chamber and post-treatment chamber, each of which is connected to the deposition chamber through a vacuum valve; and a conveying line that conveys the cutting tools from the pre-treatment chamber to the post-treatment chamber going through the deposition chamber, the in-line deposition apparatus using a conveyed carrier on which rods supporting cutting tools are provided in a standing state along a conveying direction. The deposition chamber includes: a deposition region; a conveying apparatus; a heating region; and a carrier-waiting region.

The present invention provides a preparation method of a gallium nitride single crystal based on a ScAlMgO.sub.4 substrate, comprising following steps: (1) providing a ScAlMgO.sub.4 substrate; (2) growing a buffer layer on a surface of the ScAlMgO.sub.4 substrate; (3) annealing the buffer layer; (4) growing a GaN crystal on the buffer layer; (5) performing cooling, so that the GaN crystal is automatically peeled off from the ScAlMgO.sub.4 substrate. The present invention does not need to use a complex MOCVD process for GaN deposition and preprocessing to make a mask or a separation layer, which effectively reduces production costs; compared with traditional substrates such as sapphire, it has higher quality and a larger radius of curvature, and will not cause a problem of OFFCUT non-uniformity for growing GaN over 4 inches; finally, the present invention can realize continuous growth into a crystal bar with a thickness of more than 5 mm, which further reduces the costs.

Contacting a multiplicity of seed crystals with an amorphous metallic alloy layer to form an amorphous precursor film or depositing an amorphous precursor film on a substrate and annealing the amorphous precursor film at a temperature between 50° C. and 400° C. to yield the metallic film with grains separated by grain boundaries.

A method for modifying carbon fibers and a product thereof are provided. Modified carbon fibers are obtained by heating prepared carbon fibers under an inert atmosphere after magnetron sputtering treatment. The magnetron sputtering treatment takes the prepared carbon fibers as a substrate material and carbon as a target material, and sputtering conditions includes: a vacuum degree of 2×10.sup.−3 Pa, a distance from the target material to the substrate material of 4 cm, a magnetron sputtering power of 150-350 W, a magnetron sputtering pressure of 0.5-1.6 Pa, a magnetron sputtering duration of 20-60 min, a high purity argon as working gas, and an argon flow rate of 80 mL/min The heating treatment is carried out under conditions including: a heating rate of 5° C./min, a heating temperature of 200-600° C., and a heating duration of 25-40 min.

A method for producing a LaCoO.sub.3 film on a substrate that includes positioning the substrate in a vacuum chamber, positioning a cobalt target in the vacuum chamber, positioning a lanthanum target in the vacuum chamber, providing oxygen in the vacuum chamber, and sputtering cobalt atoms off of the cobalt target and lanthanum atoms off of the lanthanum target so that the cobalt and lanthanum atoms interact with the oxygen to form the LaCoO.sub.3 film on the substrate. A power limiter that employs one or more LaCoO.sub.3 films is also disclosed.

An electrode structure of a back electrode including metal layers laminated in the following order: a Ti layer, a Ni layer, and a Ag alloy layer. The Ag alloy layer includes an Ag alloy and an addition metal M selected from Sn, Sb, and Pd. The electrode structure is configured such that when subjected to elemental analysis with an X-ray photoelectron spectrometer in the depth direction from the Ag alloy layer to the Ni layer, on the boundary between the Ni layer and the Ag alloy layer, an intermediate region where spectra derived from all the metals, Ni, Ag, and the addition element M, can be detected is observable, and, when each metal content in the intermediate region is converted based on the spectra derived from all the metals Ni, Ag, and the addition element M, the maximum of the addition element M content is 5 at % or more.