Two faculty members of the University of Hyderabad – K.A. Padmanabhan and M. Ghanashyam Krishna, have received United States and European patents for ‘Non-Stoichiometric Titanium Nitride films’ along with M.S.R.N. Kiran, former Ph.D student of the School of Physics, UoH.
The faculty members are from the School of Engineering Sciences and Technology and Department of Physics. The application for the patents was submitted in 2008, a WIPO number awarded in 2009, European Patent in October 2013 and the US Patent in July 2014. The patent application and process was funded and facilitated by TIFAC, a division of the Department of Science and Technology, a press release said.
The patent deals with the manufacture of transparent, large band gap, high refractive index and high temperature stable non-stoichiometric titanium nitride thin films. These films exhibit different colours such as blue, magenta, brown and golden yellow, which makes them very attractive for decorative applications including artificial jewellery and watches.
