(March 14, 2016) METHOD
TURNS GLASS FROM CLEAR TO OPAQUE WITH THE FLICK OF A SWITCH
Say goodbye to blinds.
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of
Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed a technique that can quickly
change the opacity of a window, turning it cloudy, clear or somewhere in
between with the flick of a switch.
Tunable windows aren’t new but most previous technologies
have relied on electrochemical reactions achieved through expensive
manufacturing. This technology,
developed by David Clarke, the Extended Tarr Family Professor of Materials, and
postdoctoral fellow Samuel Shian, uses geometry adjust the transparency of a
window.
The research is described in journal Optics Letters.
The tunable window is comprised of a sheet of glass or
plastic, sandwiched between transparent, soft elastomers sprayed with a coating
of silver nanowires, too small to scatter light on their own.
But apply an electric voltage and things change quickly.
With an applied voltage, the nanowires on either side of the
glass are energized to move toward each other, squeezing and deforming the soft
elastomer. Because the nanowires are distributed unevenly across the surface,
the elastomer deforms unevenly. The resulting uneven roughness causes light to
scatter, turning the glass opaque.
The change happens in less than a second.
It’s like a frozen pond, said Shian.
“If the frozen pond is smooth, you can see through the ice.
But if the ice is heavily scratched, you can’t see through,” said Shian.
Clarke and Shian found that the roughness of the elastomer
surface depended on the voltage, so if you wanted a window that is only light
clouded, you would apply less voltage than if you wanted a totally opaque
window.