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Over the past 50 years, the Ovshinskys have invented a number
of useful products, most based on Stan's early insight into
to disordered amorphous materials. Here are a few of his inventions:
Thin
film photovoltaics
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Photovoltaic
cells (PVs) convert sunlight into usable electricity.
In theory, we could use PVs to meet all our energy needs;
the supply of sunlight is virtually boundless and there
are no greenhouse gas emissions involved. Instead of the
traditional heavy glass, Stan Ovshinsky utilized the characteristics
of amorphous materials to make a light, flexible substrate
for photovoltaics. These thin film photovoltaics have
been turned into roof shingles, bring affordable energy
to remote villages, even helped power the Mir space station.
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Nickel
metal hydride batteries
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All
batteries create electricity when electrons flow from
the negative terminal to the positive terminal. Utilizing
the features of disordered materials, Stan Ovshinsky
invented a rechargeable battery that's longer lasting,
lighter and takes up only a third as much space as a
conventional battery. He says it's environmentally safe,
too, for instance lacking the lead found in traditional
auto batteries. In an NiMH battery, the negative electrode
is the metal hydride and the positive is nickel hydroxide.
Now they are used in everything from cell phones, to
laptop computers, to electric and hybrid cars.
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Rewritable
CD and DVDs
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Before
anyone was even buying music on CD, Stan Ovshinsky had
figured out how the compact disk would be the perfect
medium for a data storage technique called reversible
optical memory. The technology relies on Stan's original
insight that disordered materials - unlike a crystal,
for instance - lack a fixed pattern in their structural
organization. When energy is added to the system, disordered
materials can shift to a more structured state. As the
material switches to a more organized state, it transforms
from being a nonconductor to a semiconductor. This conductivity
change is named the Ovshinsky Effect. The phase change
opened the door for rewritable CDs and DVDs that can
physically change thousands of times and hold much more
data than a conventional floppy disk.
More
inventions 
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