The 166th Committee on Photonic and@Electronic Oxide
(established in 1997)

1. Background and Purpose

     Photonic and electronic materials based on transparent oxide are one of essential constituents to realize multi-media society of in the 21st century. This research committee was established to promote the advancement of technology and science of these materials and the extension of their application.
Much efforts have paid to technical developments to industrialize large size flat panel display in liquid panel display industry. The development of effective fabrication process technique for low resistant transparent electrodes is a key issue to materialize large size flat panel displays.
     In the communication development of optical devises and techniques for amplification and wavelength-divide multiplication are current issue. In future, the role is light is extremely important because it is indispensable for ultrafast parallel information processing. An ultimate goal is optical computer. However, although the concept of the design is possible, it is not still proposed a decisive idea about the concrete material design of optical elements to constitute and technique of integration. Our committee supports leading industries in the 21st century though contribution to the establishment of the relevant science and technology.
     Oxides are most stable on an earth. This is one of the great advantages for us because they are environmentally friendly. Oxides are optically transparent but electrically insulating in most cases. Thus, they have been widely applied as passive materials such as insulators, dielectrics and transparent vessels. Recently, innovative works have reported in the field of transparent crystalline and amorphous oxides. Creation of transparent p-type conducting oxides and optically encoded Bragg gratings ( Hill gratings ) are typical examples. The discovery of the former has opened the way to visible circuits@ which have a great potential to develop a new application field.

The purposes of this committee are
(1) to promote a cooperative research between academia and companies through exchange of recent researches and information,

(2) to support activities to keep the leading position in the international community,

(3) to make a proposition about material research policy in our country by ascertain recent global trends.


2. Activities

(1) Committee meetings:
Four time of one day long research meetings per year are scheduled in January, April, July and October. Each meeting is composed of 3~4 invited talks on current topics and introductory. Hot topics are taken as late news.
(2) Publishing textbooks:
No textbooks dealing transparent conducting oxides (TCO) are available although there is a strong demand. The committee is scheduled to publish a monograph on TCOs, which is prepared for beginners or newcomers utilizing human resources of the committee members.
(3) Others
This committee newest , established in April, 1997. The following activities are now planned and will be carried out in near future. a. Preparation of industrial standard of relevant materials, b. News Letters, c: International Symposia.

3. Members

Current member total : 67
(32 people from various industries and companies, 35 people from universities and public research institutes)


4. Staff Members

Chairman: Noboru ICHINOSE, Professor, Department of Materials Science and engineering, Waseda University.
Executive Secretary: Yuzo SHIGESATO, Professor, College of Science and Engineering, Aoyama Gakuin University.

5. Correspondence Contact

Yuzo SHIGESATO, Prof. 
College of Science and Engineering, Aoyama Gakuin University
5-10-1 Fuchinobe, Sagamihara city, Kanagawa 229-8558, Japan
TEL: +81-42-759-6223
FAX: +81-42-759-6493
E-mail : yuzo@chem.aoyama.ac.jp