Based on the research and development of electrochromism, its commercial applications have been realized in the areas of building windows, car rear-view mirrors and aircraft windows. In this paper, constructions, material category, working principles and characteristic requirements of electrochromic device were to described in details. Preparing methods of electrochromic films and technologies requirements for practicality were listed. The status of electrochromic technologies on commercialization and latest research were also summarized and analyzed. Electrochromism has great commercial potential and important social value for green and energy saving, which is the milestone in its developing process. At present, the trend of electrochromic technology is focused on seeking the technical route and process of saving time and cost, exploiting its application areas by combining other technologies and developing practical products. Wet chemical methods with industrial prospect have advantages of lowering cost and increasing efficiency, and can be a research hotspot for popularizing electrochromic technology. Moreover, the development and preparation of electrolyte layer will be the core technology in the future.

Plasma spray physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD) is a newly developed processing technology for advanced functional coatings and films. PS-PVD is featured with the advantages of plasma spray (PS) and physical vapor deposition (PVD) and can be used for high efficient co-deposition of vapor phases, liquid droplets and solid particles, with the capability of highly flexibility in building up various microstructure architectures. Besides, uniform deposition of the coatings or films can be achieved by this technology even on the non-line-of-sight areas of those components with complex geometry. Owing to the above merits, PS-PVD shows very promising potential in the fields of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs), environmental barrier coatings (EBCs), super-hard and wear-resistant coatings or films, oxygen permeable membranes and electrode membranes. Further, PS-PVD is recognized as the processing technology for advanced TBCs in the future. In this paper, physical principles and recent research progress in preparation and deposition mechanisms of PS-PVD TBCs are briefly introduced and summarized. The future development trends of PS-PVD in new thermal barrier coatings are prospected.

This paper introduces the processes and characterizations of the resin transfer molding briefly. The governing equations of resin flow are presented on the base of Darcy′s law. By the transformation of the anisotropic system and its equivalent isotropic system, a novel method is proposed for measuring the in-plane permeabilities of the anisotropic fibre preform. The in-plane permeabilities of the orthotropic fabric media are calculated from fluid and fibre properties together with data from the mold filling experiment, and good agreement is found between the results and the quoted datas.

Structural stabilities, mechanical properties and electronic structures of Al₂Cu, Al₂CuMg and MgZn₂ intermetallics in Al-Zn-Mg-Cu aluminum alloys were determined from the first-principle calculations by VASP based on the density functional theory. The results show that the cohesive energy (E_coh) decreases in the order MgZn₂ > Al₂CuMg > Al₂Cu, whereas the formation enthalpy (ΔH) decreases in the order MgZn₂ > Al₂Cu > Al₂CuMg. Al₂Cu can act as a strengthening phase for its ductile and high Young's modulus. The Al₂CuMg phase exhibits elastic anisotropy and may act as a crack initiation point. MgZn₂ has good plasticity and low melting point, which is the main strengthening phase in the Al-Zn-Mg-Cu aluminum alloys. Metallic bonding mode coexists with a fractional ionic interaction in Al₂Cu, Al₂CuMg and MgZn₂, and that improves the structural stability. In order to improve the alloys' performance further, the generation of MgZn₂ phase should be promoted by increasing Zn content while Mg and Cu contents are decreased properly.

Application features and research status of alternative 3D-printing materials for six typical 3D-printingtechniques were reviewed. From the point of view of physical forms, four kinds of materials of liquid photosensitive resin material, thin sheet material (paper or plastic film) , low melting point filament material and powder material are included. And from the composition point of view, nearly all kinds of materials in the production and life are included such as polymer materials: plastic, resin, wax; metal and alloy materials; ceramic materials. Liquid photosensitive resin material is used for stereo lithigraphy apparatus(SLA); thin sheet materials such as paper or plastic film are used for laminated object manufacturing(LOM); low melting point polymer filament materials such as wax filament, polyolefin resin filament, polyamide filament and ABS filament are used for fused deposition modeling(FDM); very wide variety powder materials including nylon powder, nylon-coated glass powder, polycarbonate powder, polyamide powder, wax powder, metal powder(Re-sintering and infiltration of copper are needed after sintering), wax-coated ceramic powder, wax-coated metal powder and thermosetting resin-coated fine sand are used for selective laser sintering(SLS). Nearly the same above powder materials are used for selective laser melting(SLM), but the printed parts own much more higher density and better mechanical properties. Powder materials are likewise used for threedimensional printing and gluing(3DP), however, the powders are stuck together by tricolor binder sprayed through nozzle and cross-section shape of the part is color-printed on it. Finally, the development direction in both quality and the yield of 3D-printing materials were pointed out to be a bottle-neck issue and a hot topic in the field of 3D-printing.

The development of next generation aero-engines requires support of advanced materials and appropriate new structures and technologies. According to the service environment of aero-materials,some points of view on combining the structure concept with material concept,the advancement and reliability of aero-engines with the controllability and safety of structure and defect for research and development of materials are proposed. From the aspects of fundamental properties of maximam service temperature,high temperature specific strength,antioxidation,toughness,conductivity and processing ability,the behaviour of traditional and new materials systems is analysed and some suggesstions aimed at the problems in development of aero-engine materials in China are presented.

The effect of nano inorganic filler systems on curability, mechanical property, thermal aging property, thermal conductivity and thermal stability of peroxide vulcanization of fluororubber was investigated. The results show that T90 of fluororubbers is delayed with the addition of different morphology of carbon nano-materials compared with BaSO₄, BN and R930. The mechanical property and reinforcing efficiency of fluoroelastomer filled by CNTs, graphite and N990 are increased more than the others, when all the vulcanized rubbers possesse the same hardness. CNTs shows the best reinforcing efficiency. Inorganic filler CNTs can increase the tear strength, but it can also result in a higher compression set. Thermal aging property and compression set resistance of fluororubber filled with Graphite and N990 have better performance. Compression set of fluororubber is minimum with the addition of rutile type TiO₂(R930). Graphite and BN are benefit to thermal conductivity. Fluororubber with BaSO₄ possesses the highest decomposition temperature and the smallest mass loss.

The effects of low angle grain boundaries on the mechanical properties of second generation single crystal superalloy DD5 were investigated and the test specimens were prepared by using seeds. The results show that at 870 ℃, the yield strength and breaking strength showed no difference when the angle is below 16.1°. The elongation is higher than 15% when the angle is below 11.4°, but the elongation decreases quickly when angle is above 11.4°. At 980 ℃/250 MPa, the rupture life is higher than 130 h when the angle is below 5.1°, and decreased slowly when the angle is above 5.1°. The rupture life still remaines 85% when the angle is 14.8°. But the rupture life decreases quickly when the angle is above 14.8°.At 1093 ℃/158 MPa, the rupture life is higher than 30 h when the angle is below 5.1°, and decreases when the angle is above 5.1°.

The advanced polymer composites community has made great progress during the past thirty years.An assesment on the state of the art of the advanced polymer composites as well as their applications in aviation industrial is presented.The future development and research prospects of advanced polymer composites are discussed.

The fatigue life experiments of 7075-T651 aluminum alloy were conducted under different stress amplitude and S-N curves was gained from fitting the experimental data.An estimation of detailed fatigue limit result was 223MPa.The fractography of high stress amplitude and low stress amplitude using scanning microscope displayed that the crack initiation mostly derived from the interior flaw or inclusion,and crack propagation gone with the quasi-cleavage crack.The crack propagation regions under high stress amplitude was characterized by furrow and tyre patterns while lots of fatigue fringe together with the fatigue sidestep and secondary crack generated in the crack propagation regions of low stress amplitude.The tearing edge and equiaxial dimples existed in fatigue failure region of both high stress amplitude and low stress amplitude fracture surface.The bulky inclusion particles can be the crack initiation while dispersion of tiny precipitated phase has a positive influence on fatigue performance of 7075-T651 aluminum alloy.

According to Alexander's relation between diffraction intensity and weight fraction,two new calculation equations of x-ray quantitative phase analysis are obtained.According to these equations,two new methods of quntitative phase analysis are established,that is the method with reference sample and the method without standard sample.One of them can be used in the phase analysis without determined phases which are used as standard sample.Therefore,the problem to obtain pure phase is solved.The other can be used in the phase analysis sample, in such a case internal standard samples are not necessaty.The experimental operations,therefore,can be simplified and the determination accuracy can be improved.

Graphene materials with excellent mechanical and physical properties as well as two-dimensional flexible morphology are ideal reinforcement nanofillers for aluminum matrix nanocomposites. Rapid progress in graphene materials and nanocomposites fabricating technology promotes the development of advanced graphene reinforced aluminum matrix nanocomposites for structural and functional applications. Nevertheless, the dispersion of graphene nanofillers within aluminum matrix and the interfacial controlling between them remain longstanding challenges in the fabrication of graphene reinforced aluminum matrix nanocomposites. This paper focused on the recent development of the fabrication and characterization of graphene reinforced aluminum matrix nanocomposites, including the dispersion and consolidation technology of graphene reinforced aluminum matrix nanocomposites as well as their structural characters and mechanical behaviors. The mechanical performances of aluminum matrix were remarkably enhanced by the introduction of graphene, which can increase further by optimizing process parameters, improving microstructure and controlling interface between aluminum and graphene. Furthermore, in order to realize the engineering application, more investigation should be given on the corrosion, thermal and electrical properties. It is also very important to develop a new method with low cost and large-scale production. As a novel 2-dimension structure and unique surface state of graphene, the reinforcing and toughening mechanism was discussed.

A review on the 20th century development history of casting superalloys is presented.Several main events,vacuum melting,directionally solidified and single crystal superalloy,alloy design,Ni3Al-based casting alloys,numerical simulation technique and fine grain casting are described.Furthermore,some prospects on the developments of cast superalloy in the 21th century are proposed.

The basic failure modes in unidirectional composite laminates have been given and the damage characteristics in multi directional composite laminates have been summarized. In composite laminates there are four basic failure modes: matrix cracking, delamination, fiber breakage and debonding. Although numerous and complicated failure modes can be combined from the four basic failure modes mentioned above, all the failures in composite laminates can be divided into two kinds:"fiber dominated modes" and "matrix dominated modes". The failure analysis methods for composite laminates have been also discussed in this paper. At present, the knowledge of fractography of composite materials is growing and paid much attention.

The strengthening mechanisms and strength prediction have always been the focus of investigation, because these are critical to the design of metal matrix composites (MMCs). Numerous strengthening mechanism and theoretical models have been developed to correlate the mechanical behaviors of MMCs with their microstructure characteristics, but no one accords with the experimental results very well. An overview of recent studies on strengthening mechanisms and models for MMCs is presented. The disadvantages, appropriate research orientation are also discussed.

Applications and research progress in advanced aeronautical resin matrix composites by National Key Laboratory of Advanced Composites (LAC) were summarized. A novel interlaminar toughening technology employing ultra-thin TP non-woven fabric was developed in LAC, which significantly improved the compression after impact (CAI) performances of composite laminates.Newly designed multilayer sandwich stealth composite structures exhibited a good broadband radar absorbing properties at 1-18 GHz.There were remarkable developments in high toughness and high temperature resin matrix composites, covering major composite processing technologies such as prepreg-autoclave procedure, liquid composite molding and automation manufacture, etc. Finally, numerical simulation and optimization methods were deliberately utilized in the study of composites curing behavior, resin flow and curing deformation. A composite material database was also established.In conclusion, LAC has been a great support for the development of aeronautical equipment, playing such roles as innovation leading, system dominating, foundation supporting and application ensuring of aerocomposites.

This paper introduced the two main electrica1 conduction mechanisms of the silicone conductive rubber,which are conductive pathway theory and quantum mechanics tunne1ing effect theory.The progress of electrical1y conductive fillers is mentioned,and the factors affecting the conductive properties of silicone rubber are discussed based on temperature,pressure,machining technics and so on.In addition,the applications and prospect of the conductive silicone rubber are briefly viewed.

Benzocyclobutene is a thermally activated precursor to the highly reactive intermediate orthoquinodimethane. The intermediate will react either with itself or dienophile in a Diels-Alder fashion. The chemical reaction principle for benzocyclobutene compounds, the properties and applications of polymers from benzocyclobutenes are reviewed in this paper. The tendency and prospect for the development of the materials are also discussed.

P/M superalloy becomes excellent material for fabricating turbine discs used for advanced aviation enging due to its special structure and properties.To advance the applicable property and security of aviation enging,the material from melting original alloy to engineering application of turbine disc was studied,and remarkable results in aspect of so many key technologies were gained due to the result of the foundation of fabricating technique for turbine disc and the establishment of process and testing documents.Numerical simulation is widely used to fabricate P/M turbine disc for the purpose of shortening studying period and optimizing processes,and the preparatory experimental results were achieved.

This paper reviewed the progress of high-temperature PMR type polyimide matrix composites, and summarized its application in aeronautical engine field.

With the increasing wide application of organic or polymer substrates, amorphous transparent conducting oxides (a-TCOs) had been widely applied to thin-film transistors, polymer/organic solar cells, electrochromic devices, electromagnetic shielding and other areas due to the combined transparency and conductivity as well as stable properties, processing compatibilities with current technologies and free of post-annealing. A-TCOs films were not the amorphous counterpart of crystalline TCOs but prepared with special elements under certain conditions. After the brief introduction to the working principle of TCO, the even general amorphous transparent semiconducting oxide was addressed intensively. It was worth to note that compared with c-TCOs and classic silicon, the features of electronic structure of a-TCOs were the cations with special configuration (n-1)d¹⁰ns⁰. The stable amorphous structure and excellent properties can be conserved due to larger overlap integral between the adjacent atoms, high mobility and robustness. Particularly, the near range structure characterization such as the medium range order, band structure described by density of states and the metastability of amorphous structure and the related properties were introduced as well. Afterwards, the properties and features of N-type and P-type a-TCOs were exampled in details, especially the indium-based systems, such as excellent a-In-Zn-O films. Less example of P-type a-TCOs were shown as no general principle had been formed for that. Finally, many state-of-art applications including thin-film transistor are introduced. Based upon the current status and emerging trend, three potential research perspective directions of a-TCO have been delivered:(1) to further investigate non-indium based a-TCO; (2) to develop on the P-type TCO with novel principle and material systems; (3) to enable the alternative application that occupied by conventional silicon previously.

The paper presents the domestic and overseas current status of the steel applied to aircraft landing gear in combination of the design concept and requirements for aircraft landing gear. The application features and concept of the steel used for landing gear are summarized and the domestic and overseas status are compared. For the moment, the low-alloy ultra-high strength steel and high-alloy ultra-high strength steel are all being used in the material system for aircraft landing gear steel, and the complete technical system for its anti-fatigue manufacturing is built. At present, China's development and application of high strength steel applied to aircraft landing gear is at the world advanced level. At last, the prospect for future development is analyzed.

Residual stresses of a very significant level were introduced when aluminum alloy parts were quenched in cold water from the temperature of solution treatment Residual stresses cause not only distortion and cracking, but also enhance susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking (SCC) and lead to premature failure The aim of this research is how to control and relieve residual stresses in high-strength aluminum alloy parts First, various quenching processes have been evaluated in an attempt to combine low residual stresses with the required levels of mechanical properties during solid solution, involving quenching into boiling water, spray quenching and polymer glycol quenchants The second part of this paper is focused on the comparison of different stress-relieving techniques, highlighting their key attributes, specific advantages and limitations Moreover, the paper concludes that all stress-relieving techniques should be carried out immediately after being quenched in the solution treatment.

The measurement principles of indentation creep by depth sensing indentation were elucidated,and recent progresses in investigation on indentation creep were also introduced.The creep behavior of metallic materials such as Ta,Ni and Ni-based alloy,BaTiO3 and Ag/Co multilayers were measured by depth sensing indentation.The stress exponents and the corresponding creep mechanism were also analyzed.

A new type Korex honeycomb cell materials was introduced. Korex is an aramid/phenolic high mo dulus,high strength true composite honeycomb core. It was first introduced in 1992 in response to industry desires for a lightweight composite core with greater stiffness, strength and fatigue resistance. The mechanical properties and typical application properties for Korex honeycomb core of different cell-density have been also compared in the article. A few new type honeycomb structure have been given. The research for new type honeycomb cell structure and materials will efficiently increase the mechanical properties of honeycomb structure, decrease their structure weight and enhance their working reliability. All these are very beneficial to enlarge the application of honeycomb structure in aerospace and other industry fields.

Continuous fiber reinforced silicon carbide ceramic matrix composites were developing towards possessing self-healing properties for the need of high thrust mass ratio aerospace-engine working in thermal oxidizing environment.The microstructure and properties of a self-healing silicon carbide matrix composite were introduced.The mechanism of toughness and stiffness of the composite and the self-healing behaviors were commented.The application progress of self-healing silicon carbide component was summarized.Manufacturing method and technique feature were reviewed.Multi-component and multi-layer microstructure was the key point for this composite possessing self-healing and toughing properties,and oxidation resistant system which exhausted O2 and sealed crack in each layer.This self-healing silicon carbide matrix composite coule not only meet the requirements of for aerospace-engine service but decreased weight remarkably,increased thrust-weight ratio in return.

The recent development of near net-shape investment casting technology for superalloys was introduced.The researching results of investment casting technology for superalloy turbine blades/vanes,integral turbine wheels,nozzle assembly and casings of aero engine in BIAM were mainly introduced.Meanwhile the researching scopes in the future was discussed.

Titanium fire is the typical catastrophic fault in the aero-engine. Aiming at the urgent demand for experimental technique of titanium fire from advanced high thrust-weight ratio aero-engine, the combustion technology and theory of titanium alloy based on friction oxygen concentration method (FOC) were systematically studied. The evaluation method of fireproof property and the friction ignition model were built, and the fireproof mechanism was illustrated. By generalizing recent progress in experimental technique of titanium fire from three levels, including evolutionary rule, mechanism and prevention and control technology, the ideas and directions of experimental technique associated with the application research of titanium fire in the future were proposed, namely overall evaluation of fireproof property close to air flow environment of the aero-engine, prediction model of fireproof property and experimental verification of fireproof technique under the air flow environment of aero-engine. It is necessary to establish the prevention system of titanium fire in aero-engine, which contributes to the realization of "full titanium" in compressor and to the increase of high thrust-weight ratio.

The microstructures and tensile properties of cold-rolled and T3 treated 2524 aluminum alloy sheet with the thickness of 2mm at different orientation were investigated by tensile test,OM,XRD and TEM analysis.On the basis of the model that regards the sheet containing only {110}texture,the relationship of in-plane anisotropy and the anisotropy of crystallography was analyzed.The results show that the strength of 2524 cold-rolled and T3 sheet orientated 45° and 60° with respect to the rolling direction is lower than that of specimens orientated 0°,30° and 90° with respect to the rolling direction.The elongation of the sheet orientated 45° with respect to the rolling direction is highest,And then the tensile properties of the sheet orientated 0° with respect to the rolling direction are both higher than that of the sheet orientated 90° with respect to the rolling direction.The IPA of cold-rolling condition alloy sheet is higher than that of T3 condition.The major crystallographic texture of 2524 cold-rolled sheet is {110},and the secondary crystallographic texture is {311}.But the major crystallographic texture of 2524-T3 condition is {110}.The in-plane anisotropy of mechanical properties of 2524 aluminum alloy sheet is closely related to the grain structure and crystallography orientation,among them crystallographic texture is responsible for the in-plane anisotropy of mechanical properties.

The "four essential factors" of materials science and engineering,including composition (component) and structure, synthesis and process, property and service behavior, were explained. The proposal of "four essential factors" ends the chaotic state of materials research and bridges the gulf between the theory and industry. Based on these, reliable materials with ultimate congenital properties are obtained, and advanced materials can be developed rapidly. Moreover, author raised the concept of "two whole processes", namely the whole process of materials development and the whole process of materials application research. The implementation of the two whole processes on a high level can ensure the acquisition of reliable and useful materials with ultimate congenital and ultimate service properties, which will lead "materials science and engineering" into a new era and enable China to be a powerful country in the field of materials.

The application and feature of Ti alloy and TiAl alloy for aviation at home and abroad were briefly introduced. According to the patent application status in Ti alloy field, the development of Ti alloy casting technology was analyzed in the recent thirty years, especially the transformation in aviation. Along with the development of aeronautional manufacturing technology and demand of high performance aircraft, Ti alloy casting is changing towards to be large, integral and complicated, and the evolution of TiAl alloy casting increases the operating temperature of the Ti alloy casting for aviation. Moreover, the Ti alloy forming technology is no longer a single investment casting. Combining with the advantages of casting simulation technology and additive manufacturing technology, it adopts a compound way of development in order to increase its integral casting level and productive efficiency.

The ICME (Integrated Computational Materials Engineering) for aluminum alloys was applied to combine key experiments with multi-scale numerical simulations from nano (10^-10-10^-8 m) to micro (10^-8-10^-4 m) to meso (10^-4-10^-2 m) and to macro (10^-2-10 m) during the whole R & D (research and development) process of aluminum alloys. Using integrated analysis of the composition-processing-structure-properties, the methodology for developing aluminum alloys was promoted from trial and error to scientific design, SO the R & D of aluminum alloys was significantly speed up and the cost was reduced. In this paper, multi-scale simulation approaches including Ab-initio, CALPHAD (CALculation of PHAse Diagram), phase field, and finite element method together with experimental methods characterizing structure and properties are elaborated. The function of each method in the R & D of aluminum alloys is carefully discussed. Based on ICME, the framework for R & D of aluminum alloys, involving end-user demand, product design and industrial design, is established. Two application examples are presented to describe the important role of ICME during the development stage of aluminum alloys, which provides an innovative pattern for R & D of advanced aluminum alloys.

The research progress of heat resistance, cold resistance, electrical conductivity and damping properties of aviation silicone rubber were reviewed in this article. The heat resistance properties of silicone rubber can be enhanced by changing the molecular structure (main chain, end-group, side chain and molecular weight) of the gum and adding special heat-resistance filler. The cold resistance of aviation silicone rubber can be enhanced by adjusting the side chain molecular structure of the gum and the content of different gum chain. The electrical conductivity of silicone rubber can be improved by optimizing, blending and dispersing of conductive particles. The damping property of silicone rubber can be improved by designing and synthesizing of high-molecular polysiloxane damping agent. Furthermore, the application of aviation silicone rubber used in high-low temperature seal, electrical conduction and vibration damping technology are also summarized, and the high performance (for example long-term high temperature resistance, ultralow temperature resistance, high electromagnetic shelding, long-term fatigue resistance vibration damping, quasi constant modulus and so on) of special silicone rubber is the future direction of aviation silicone rubber.

As a non-conduct and whole field measurement method, 3D DIC (3D digital image correlation) is widely used in mechanical properties test of many types of materials in varies fields. Compared with other optical measurement methods, it has advantages as automation, simple optical path, strong universality and anti-interference and so on. But it has some problems in the process of application, i.e. the measurement accuracy is uncertain, the high temperature test condition seriously affects the experimental results, and the measurable area of large curvature specimen is limited. This paper gives a general introduction to the application of 3D DIC in the conventional mechanical property test of different types of materials, and verifies its accuracy by comparing with the traditional extensometer measurement results and the finite element simulation results. It focuses on some latest technological progress, such as the high-temperature speckle preparation and multi-camera DIC, as the application of 3D DIC in the high temperature and large deformation measurement is mostly studied. Moreover, it is pointed out that 3D DIC should be further studied for the influence of speckle on measurement precision, the effect of environmental factors, the measurement of micro strain scale and the application in fields of military and biomedical materials.

Graphene has attracted wide interest of academic and industrial circles due to its superior physical and chemical properties. The functionalization of graphene helps improve its dispersion, and adjusts its performances according to specific needs, thus enables wide applications of graphene, and becomes a hot spot of graphene related researches. This review introduced the recent advances of graphene functionalization, presents covalent and non-covalent methods of functional modification, and described applications of the modified graphene in composite materials, energy storing, optical electronics, chemical catalyzing, pollution processing, biology material and sensors. We concluded the characteristics of functionalized graphene that most of reactive groups can show their own practical properties very actively when being connected to the graphene surface. There will be two main research orientations in functionalized graphene field: one is quantifying, which is to determine and control the quantity of introduced functional species; the other is positioning that is to select the modification sites precisely and to design their fine chemical structures.

Nb/Nb₅Si₃ superalloy has the most potential in the application of future high temperature structures. Realization of microstructure lamination for this material is a new material design and preparation method. Characteristics and prevailing preparation technologies of Nb/Nb₅Si₃ microlaminate, including hot pressing, plasma spaying, magnetic sputtering and electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) are reviewed. It is pointed out that EB-PVD is a promising technology for producing Nb/Nb₅Si₃ microlaminate from the engineering application point of view. Structure and function compound, nano-laminating and toughening are the developing directions in the future electron beam physical vapor deposited Nb/Nb₅Si₃ microlaminate field.

With the size of thin-film electronic devices decreasing, the film stress became an important reason for the failure of thin film devices. Film stress not only affected the membrane structure, but also associated with film optics, electricity, mechanics and other properties, therefore film stress turned into one hot spot in the research field of thin-film materials. This paper reviewed the latest research progress of film stress, substrate curvature method, X-ray diffraction technique and Raman spectroscopy, several frequently used stress measuring techniques were compared and analyzed, and composition ratios of thin film, substrate types, magnetron sputtering process parameters (sputtering power, work pressure, substrate temperature) and annealing etc. factors influencing thin film stress were summarized. It was found that substrate curvature method was suitable for measuring almost all kinds of thin film materials. X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy were just fit for measuring materials with characteristic peaks. Nanoindentation method required extra stress-free samples as comparison experiments. During film fabrication and annealing process, film stress usually transited from compressive to tensile status, and several factors combined together could affect stress, so film stress could be reached the minimum value or even stress-free status through setting appropriate parameters. Finally, combined with film stress research status, accurate stress measurement methods for different materials as a thin-film stress research direction were introduced, and challenges in thin film detection range were pointed out.

Silica-based ceramic cores with alumina as mineralizer were prepared and the effects of particle size and shape on properties of ceramic cores were studied. The results show that the slurries with spherical alumina particles fill mold better than those with the irregular ones. When irregular alumina particles are added, the sintering shrinkage of ceramic cores decreases with the increase of particle size. When spherical alumina particles are added, the particle shape or size has slight influence on the sintering shrinkage and flexural strength of ceramic cores at room temperature; while the resistance to deformation at high temperature is significantly weakened.

Transparent conducting oxide films (TCOs), as indispensable components, have a significant number of application in solar energy batteries, flat panel displays and transparent windows, etc. This paper reviews present status and future prospects for the development of TCOs comprehensively, introduces the conducting and electron scattering mechanisms in TCOs and summarizes the material's selection rules for design of TCOs. Basically, the stoichiometric oxide film is non-conductive. However, this non-conductive oxide film can be transformed into conductive film by introducing some defects into the oxide film, e.g. oxygen vacancies, interstitials and exotic dopants, which form an energy level in these oxide films. According to the difference in type of defects, i.e., acceptor or donor, the transparent conductive oxide film can be classified into N-type and P-type semiconductors. Furthermore, in these defects induced conductive films, there are four scattering mechanisms including boundary scattering, phonon scattering, dopant scattering and twin boundary scattering. Amongst the aforementioned scattering mechanism, boundary scattering and dopant scattering are the two dominant scattering mechanisms in transparent conductive oxide films. Additionally, the properties and applications of impurity-doped In₂O₃-, SnO₂-and ZnO-based TCOs are elaborated in detail. Owing to the advantage in preparation of low resistivity film and processing in semiconducting technology, the In₂O₃-based TCO is the most used material in preparation of transparent electrode, while the SnO₂-and ZnO-based TCOs are the two most significant candidates for substitution of In₂O₃-based TCO because of their low cost. At last, combined with the development of multifunctional electronic devices, we propose that the transparent conducting film with oxide/metal/oxide sandwich structure is the future direction for improving the conductivity and transparency of TCOs.