An optical member includes a transparent substrate, an alumina-based first transparent ceramic layer on the transparent substrate, and an alumina-based second transparent ceramic layer on the alumina-based first transparent ceramic layer such that the alumina-based first transparent ceramic layer is between the transparent substrate and the alumina-based second transparent ceramic layer. A refractive index of the alumina-based second transparent ceramic layer is smaller than a refractive index of the alumina-based first transparent ceramic layer. The alumina-based first transparent ceramic layer and the alumina-based second transparent ceramic layer may have independent compositions, and the independent compositions may each be a silica-free composition.

An electronic device may include electrical components mounted within a housing. The device may have a display on a front face of the device that is covered with a glass structure and may have a glass structure that forms part of the housing on a rear face of the device. The housing may also have a sidewall formed from glass, metal, or other materials. The glass structures of the electronic device may have a surface that is covered with an antiscratch layer, an antireflection layer, or other coating. A spiral grain polycrystalline material may form a coating on the surface of the glass structures to help avoid fracturing of the glass structures when the electronic device is dropped or otherwise subjected to stress.

Various embodiments herein relate to electrochromic windows that are bird friendly, as well as methods and apparatus for forming such windows. Bird friendly windows include one or more elements that make the window visible to birds so that the birds recognize that they cannot fly through the window. Bird friendly windows can be used to minimize avian-window collisions, and therefore minimize avian deaths resulting from such collisions. In various embodiments, a window may be patterned such that the pattern is visible to birds. In these or other cases, the window may be made hazy, where the haze is visible to birds. The pattern and/or haze may be visible at wavelengths that fall in UV, and minimally noticeable (if at all) in wavelengths within the spectrum visible by humans.

A coated article is provided with at least one infrared (IR) reflecting layer. The IR reflecting layer may be of silver or the like. In certain example embodiments, a titanium oxide layer is provided over the IR reflecting layer, and it has been found that this surprisingly results in an IR reflecting layer with a lower specific resistivity (SR) thereby permitting thermal properties of the coated article to be improved.

There are provided coated articles that include two or more infrared (IR) reflecting layers (e.g., of or including NbZr, Nb, NiCr, NiCrMo, and/or a nitride thereof) sandwiched between at least dielectric layers, and/or a method of making the same. The coating may be designed so that the coated articles realize green glass side reflective coloration in combination with a low solar factor (SF) and/or a low solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC). Such coated articles may be used in the context of monolithic windows, insulating glass (IG) window units, laminated windows, and/or other suitable applications, and may optionally be heat treated (e.g., thermally tempered) in certain instances.

An optical film structure that includes: an optical film comprising a physical thickness from about 50 nm to about 3000 nm, and a silicon-containing nitride or a silicon-containing oxynitride. The optical film exhibits a maximum hardness of greater than 18 GPa, as measured by a Berkovich Indenter Hardness Test over an indentation depth range from about 100 nm to about 500 nm on a hardness stack comprising a test optical film with a physical thickness of about 2 microns disposed on an inorganic oxide test substrate, the test optical film having the same composition as the optical film. Further, the optical film exhibits an optical extinction coefficient (k) of less than 110.sup.2 at a wavelength of 400 nm and a refractive index (n) of greater than 1.8 at a wavelength of 550 nm.

A low-E coating has good color stability (a low E* value) upon heat treatment (HT). Thermal stability may be improved by the provision of an as-deposited crystalline or substantially crystalline layer of or including zinc oxide, doped with at least one dopant (e.g., Sn), immediately under an infrared (IR) reflecting layer of or including silver; and/or by the provision of at least one dielectric layer of or including at least one of: (a) an oxide of silicon and zirconium, (b) an oxide of zirconium, and (c) an oxide of silicon. These have the effect of significantly improving the coating's thermal stability (i.e., lowering the E* value). An absorber film may be designed to adjust visible transmission and provide desirable coloration, while maintaining durability and/or thermal stability.

A cathode sputtering target is formed, on the one hand, from an oxide of at least one element chosen from the group of titanium, silicon and zirconium and, on the other hand, of particles of a metal included in the group formed by silver, gold, platinum, copper and nickel or particles of an alloy formed from at least two of these metals, the atomic ratio M/Me in the target being less than 1.5, M representing all of the atoms of the elements of the group of titanium, silicon and zirconium present in the layer and Me representing all of the atoms of the metals of the group formed by silver, gold, platinum, copper and nickel present in the layer.

Provided is an antireflective-film attached transparent substrate having a luminous transmittance of 20% to 84% and a b* value of a transmission color being 5 or smaller under a D65 light source, in which the antireflective film has a luminous reflectance being 1% or lower and a sheet resistance being 10.sup.4/ or higher, and in which the antireflective film has a multilayer structure built up of at least two layers, at least one layer is constituted mainly of silicon oxide, and at least another layer is constituted mainly of a mixed oxide of at least one oxide of Mo and W and at least one oxide of Si, Nb, Ti, Zr, Ta, Al, Sn, and In, and has an extinction coefficient at 550 nm being in a range of 0.005 to 3.

This disclosure provides systems, methods, and apparatus for tempering or chemically strengthening glass substrates having electrochromic devices fabricated thereon. In one aspect, an electrochromic device is fabricated on a glass substrate. The glass substrate is then tempered or chemically strengthened. The disclosed methods may reduce or prevent potential issues that the electrochromic device may experience during the tempering or the chemical strengthening processes, including the loss of charge carrying ions from the device, redistribution of charge carrying ions in the device, modification of the morphology of materials included in the device, modification of the oxidation state of materials included in the device, and the formation of an interfacial region between the electrochromic layer and the counter electrode layer of the device that impacts the performance of the device.