A transparent, rigid amorphous silica (SiO2)-anatase phase titania (TiO2) multilayer coating was fabricated on K-Ca-Zn-Si glass substrate (i.e. slide glass for optical microscope use). The silica and titania layers were successively fabricated in that order by the hydrolysis of Si-tetraethoxide in ethanol and Ti-tetraethoxide in iso-propanol, respectively, at 20 degreesC and annealing in air at 350 degreesC after each cycle. X-ray diffraction profiles showed that the titania upperlayer was successfully transformed to polycrystalline anatase in samples where the thickness of the silica underlayer d(s) was 230 nm and/or that of the titania upperlayer d(t) was 99 nm and that no crystallization occurred in samples where d(s) and d(t) were 115 nm and 55 nm, respectively. No amorphous-anatase transformation occurred when the silica underlayer was not prepared nor when it was used as-deposited. This indicated that amorphous-anatase transformation in the upperlayer was hindered by the migration of elements diffused from the substrate. The silica underlayer of d(s) = 115 nm was less effective as a barrier to these elements but was still sufficient when a thicker upperlayer, i.e. d(t)=99 nm, was fabricated. Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy indicated efficient filtering of UV light by the multilayer coating where d(s)=115 nm and d(t)=99 nm. The absorption edge was determined to be at lambda = 318 nm, while the loss of visible light was less than 12% per coating over the range of 480-850 nm. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.