Vanadium dioxide 'smart glass' can be activated to block infrared light while remaining transparent to visible light

'Smart glass' can switch from transparent to opaque at the flick of a switch and is increasingly used in cars, aircraft and homes to reduce the Sun's glare and filter out infrared light and heat. Masaki Nakano and colleagues from the RIKEN Center for Emergent Matter Science have now used vanadium dioxide to make a transparent material that can be activated to block infrared light without affecting its transparency for visible light.