The present disclosure relates to electrochromic elements (10) and devices (110) comprising an electrochromic material layer (114), an insulating layer (116), and a bulk heterojunction layer (118), having one or more optical properties that may be changed upon application of an electric potential. Upon provision of an electric potential above a threshold, electrons and holes may be injected into the electrochromic layer (114) and bulk heterojunction layer (118), and blocked by the insulating layer (116), resulting in an accumulation of the electrons and holes in their respective electrochromic material resulting in a change to the one or more optical properties of the electrochromic materials (114; 118). An opposite electric potential may be provided to reverse the change in the one or more optical properties.

Provided is a black light-shielding member, which has an excellent effect of anti-reflection that based on low glossiness and has a high blackness. A black light-shielding member including a substrate film, a resin-made light-shielding layer having a concave-convex shape formed on at least one surface of the substrate film, and a blackened layer formed on the resin-made light-shielding layer is produced. By adjusting an arithmetic mean surface roughness Ra of the surface on which the light-shielding layer and the blackened layer are formed to be 0.25 μm or more, and the maximum thickness of the blackened layer is less than the said Ra, a blackness with an L value of 12 or less is achieved.

In a metal oxide film formation method of the present invention, the following steps are performed. In a solution vessel, a raw-material solution including aluminum as a metallic element is turned into a mist so that a raw-material solution mist is obtained. In a solution vessel provided independently of the solution vessel, a reaction aiding solution including a reaction aiding agent for formation of aluminum oxide is turned into a mist so that an aiding-agent mist is obtained. Then, the raw-material solution mist and the aiding-agent mist are fed to a nozzle provided in a reactor vessel via paths. Thereafter, the raw-material solution mist and the aiding-agent mist are mixed in the nozzle so that a mixed mist is obtained. Then, the mixed mist is fed onto a back surface of a heated P-type silicon substrate.

A coated article may comprise a substrate and an optical coating. The substrate may have a major surface comprising a first portion and a second portion. A first direction that is normal to the first portion of the major surface may not be equal to a second direction that is normal to the second portion of the major surface. The optical coating may be disposed on at least the first portion and the second portion of the major surface. The coated article may exhibit at the first portion of the substrate and at the second portion of the substrate hardness of about 8 GPa or greater at an indentation depth of about 50 nm or greater as measured on the anti-reflective surface by a Berkovich Indenter Hardness Test.

A method for making a wire grid polarizer (WGP) can provide WGPs with high temperature resistance, robust wires, oxidation resistance, and corrosion protection. In one embodiment, the method can comprise: (a) providing an array of wires on a bottom protection layer; (b) applying a top protection layer on the wires, spanning channels between wires; then (c) applying an upper barrier-layer on the top protection layer and into the channels through permeable junctions in the top protection layer. In a variation of this embodiment, the method can further comprise applying a lower barrier-layer before applying the top protection layer. In another variation, the bottom protection layer and the top protection layer can include aluminum oxide. In another embodiment, the method can comprise applying on the WGP an amino phosphonate then a hydrophobic chemical.

Disclosed is a thin film stress control-based coating method for large-area coating. The method uses a two-step coating process in which a first coating layer that is a relatively low-hardness layer is primarily formed on a base member and a second coating layer that is a relatively high-hardness layer is secondarily formed on the first coating layer. The method can form a high-density coating structure that is hardly peeled off over a relatively large area compared to conventional coating methods by suppressing internal stress of the coating layers of the coating structure. Further disclosed is a coating structure manufactured by the same method.

Electrochromic devices and methods may employ the addition of a defect-mitigating insulating layer which prevents electronically conducting layers and/or electrochromically active layers from contacting layers of the opposite polarity and creating a short circuit in regions where defects form. In some embodiments, an encapsulating layer is provided to encapsulate particles and prevent them from ejecting from the device stack and risking a short circuit when subsequent layers are deposited. The insulating layer may have an electronic resistivity of between about 1 and 10.sup.8 Ohm-cm. In some embodiments, the insulating layer contains one or more of the following metal oxides: aluminum oxide, zinc oxide, tin oxide, silicon aluminum oxide, cerium oxide, tungsten oxide, nickel tungsten oxide, and oxidized indium tin oxide. Carbides, nitrides, oxynitrides, and oxycarbides may also be used.

To appropriately transmit far-infrared rays while ensuring design. A far-infrared ray transmission member (20) includes a base material (30) configured to transmit far-infrared rays, and a functional film (31) formed on the base material (30). Dispersion of reflectances with respect to pieces of light at a wavelength of 360 nm to 830 nm in increments of 1 nm is equal to or smaller than 30, a reflectance with respect to visible light defined by JIS R3106 is equal to or lower than 25%, and an average transmittance with respect to light at a wavelength of 8 μm to 12 μm is equal to or higher than 50%.

A coated article is described herein that may comprise a substrate and an optical coating. The substrate may have a major surface comprising a first portion and a second portion. A first direction that is normal to the first portion of the major surface may not be equal to a second direction that is normal to the second portion of the major surface. The optical coating may be disposed on at least the first portion and the second portion of the major surface. The coated article may exhibit at the first portion of the substrate and at the second portion of the substrate hardness of about 8 GPa or greater at an indentation depth of about 50 nm or greater as measured on the anti-reflective surface by a Berkovich Indenter Hardness Test.

Multilayer optical films including a substrate and at least a first layer overlaying a surface of the substrate, in which the at least first layer includes a (co)polymer obtained by polymerizing a polymerizable composition including a fluorinated coupling agent and at least one free-radically polymerizable monomer, oligomer, or mixture thereof. Processes for making multilayer optical films using the polymerizable compositions also are taught. Articles including the multilayer optical film also are disclosed, in which the article preferably is selected from a photovoltaic device, a display device, a solid-state lighting device, a sensor, a medical or biological diagnostic device, an electrochromic device, light control device, or a combination thereof.