Methods for making films including a water-soluble polymeric material and a vapor-deposited inorganic coating are disclosed. The method comprises providing a layer of water-soluble polymeric material and vapor depositing an inorganic coating to at least one surface of the layer of water-soluble polymeric material, wherein the inorganic coating comprises a metal oxide. The method further comprises forming a plurality of microfractures extending along the surface of the inorganic coating.

Provided is a coated cutting tool that has a nitride hard coating that contains Ti at 70 at % to 95 at % and Si at 5 at % to 30 at % with respect to the total amount of metallic elements, and Ar at 0.05 at % to 0.20 at % with respect to the total amount of metallic and non-metallic elements, has a NaCl-type crystalline structure, exhibits maximum diffraction peak intensity in the (200) plane, and has an average grain size of 5 nm to 30 nm. When 100 at % is defined as the total of content rates of the metallic elements, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon in a composition at intervals of 20 nm from a depth of 20 nm to 200 nm from a surface of the hard coating, the content rate of nitrogen is 50.0 at % or more.

In a method for coating on a surface of a medical PEEK material with titanium to have a microporous structure, titanium is coated on a surface of polyether ether ketone (PEEK) via magnetron sputtering. The surface of the titanium coated on the surface of PEEK is polished via an electromagnetic polishing apparatus. A thin-film with titanium dioxide (TiO.sub.2) having a microporous structure is formed on the polished surface of the titanium via an anodic oxidation treatment.

A piston ring that is pre-treated by grit blasting to a defined roughness, followed by PVD coating with a metal nitride to a thickness of at least 10 μm, leaving peaks and valleys in the coated piston ring. The coated piston ring is then lapped to remove the peaks without penetrating the coating, so that valleys and plateaus remain in the coated surface. The resulting piston ring exhibits superior coating retention due to the increased surface area created by the grit blasting, and yet also superior performance, as the cavities remaining increase the porosity of the coating and thus enhance the lubrication of the ring.

Methods for preparing a void-free protective coating are disclosed herein. The void-free protective coating is used on a dielectric window having a central hole, which is used in a plasma treatment tool. A first protective coating layer is applied to the window, leaving an uncoated annular retreat area around the central hole. The first protective coating layer is polished to produce a flat surface and fill in any voids on the window. A second protective coating layer is then applied upon the flat surface of the first protective coating layer to obtain the void-free coating. This increases process uptime and service lifetime of the dielectric window and the plasma treatment tool.

A method to produce a hard coating onto a substrate, wherein the hard coating comprises a hydrogen-free amorphous carbon coating, wherein the amorphous carbon coating is deposited onto the substrate using a cathodic arc discharge deposition technique, wherein a bias voltage is applied to the substrate with an absolute value that is greater than 0 V, preferably greater than 10 V and less than 1000 V, and wherein the absolute value of the bias voltage is increased during the coating process to obtain a first structure and a second structure and a gradient between the first and the second structure along the coating thickness, wherein the first and the second structure comprise sp2 and sp3 carbon bonds but differ in their relative concentration, wherein at least one coating pause is applied during the coating process in order to reduce the substrate temperature during the coating pause.

A blended display device is provided. The display device includes a display panel having a first substrate located at a back side and a second substrate located at a display side, and a directional nanowire grid polarizer (NWGP) layer disposed on the second substrate. The display panel is switchable between first and second operational modes. The directional NWGP layer has a NWGP direction. The directional NWGP layer includes at least one colored coating disposed on at least one pattern region. In the first operational mode, the directional NWGP layer functions as a polarizer for the display panel, and the display panel is used to display an image. In the second operational mode, the display panel does not display an image, and an ambient light incident toward the display panel is at least partially reflected by the pattern region of the directional NWGP layer to show a predesigned color pattern.

A blended display device is provided. The display device includes a display panel having a first substrate located at a back side and a second substrate located at a display side, and a directional nanowire grid polarizer (NWGP) layer disposed on the second substrate. The display panel is switchable between first and second operational modes. The directional NWGP layer has a NWGP direction. The directional NWGP layer includes at least one colored coating disposed on at least one pattern region. In the first operational mode, the directional NWGP layer functions as a polarizer for the display panel, and the display panel is used to display an image. In the second operational mode, the display panel does not display an image, and an ambient light incident toward the display panel is at least partially reflected by the pattern region of the directional NWGP layer to show a predesigned color pattern.

Aluminum-boron nitride nanotube composites and methods of making thereof are disclosed herein. In at least one specific embodiment, the method can include: at least partially coating boron nitride nanotubes with aluminum to make an aluminum-boron nitride nanotube layered structure, where the at least partially coating is performed by sputter deposition, and where the boron nitride nanotubes have a length of about 100 μm to about 300 μm; sintering the aluminum-boron nitride nanotube layered structure to make an aluminum-boron nitride nanotube pellet, where the sintering is performed by spark plasma sintering; and rolling the aluminum-boron nitride nanotube pellet to make the aluminum-boron nitride nanotube composite.

A bonded body includes a supporting substrate; a piezoelectric material substrate composed of a material selected from the group consisting of lithium niobate, lithium tantalate and lithium niobate-lithium tantalate; and a bonding layer bonding the supporting substrate and the piezoelectric material substrate and contacting a main surface of the piezoelectric material substrate. The bonding layer includes a void extending from the piezoelectric material substrate toward the supporting substrate. A ratio (t2/t1) of a width t2 at an end of the void on a side of the supporting substrate with respect to a width t1 at an end of the void on a side of the piezoelectric material substrate is 0.8 or lower.