  Migrating active deicing capabilities to transparent materials with low
thermal conductivity has a high potential to improve the operations of several
seminal industries in the automotive, robotic, energy, and aerospace sectors.
However, the development of efficient and environmentally friendly deicing
methods is yet in its infancy regarding their compatibility with end-user
surfaces at relevant scales and real-world operations. Herein, we approach
deicing through nanoscale surface activation enabled by surface acoustic waves
(SAWs), allowing efficient on-demand deicing of surface areas spanning several
square centimeters covered with thick layers of glace ice. We contemplate
SAW-based deicing from a twofold perspective: First, we demonstrate its
functionality both with a bulk piezoelectric material (LiNbO3) and a
piezo-electric film (ZnO), the latter proving its versatile applicability to a
large variety of functional materials with practical importance; second, we
gain fundamental knowledge of the mechanisms responsible for efficient deicing
using SAWs. In particular, we show that SAW vibrational modes easily transport
energy over greater distances outside the electrode areas and efficiently melt
large ice aggregates covering the materials' surfaces. In addition, the
essential physics of SAW-based deicing is inferred from a carefully designed
experimental and numerical study. We support our findings by providing
macroscopic camera snapshots captured in situ inside a climate chamber during
deicing and highly resolved laser-doppler vibrometer scans of the undisturbed
wavefields at room temperature. Great care was taken to deposit the
interdigital transducers (IDTs) used for SAW excitation only on ice-free areas
close to the chip edges, leaving most of the substrate used for deicing
unaltered and, as a matter of fact, demonstrating transparent deicing
solutions.
