Optical characteristics of silver film on the moth-eye structure

Abstract

The development of coating optics to lower the reflected light and thereby to increase the optical efficiency of an optical system has been a very important issue for many years. Conventional solutions to this, such as multilayered alternation of high and low refractive index layers, often lead to an expensive coating process. Recently, the use of antireflection structured (ARS) surface, which is called "moth-eye structure", has been proposed as an applicable option based on both the theoretical and experimental studies. In the current study, the experimental results of the reflectance and transmittance of two different thicknesses of silver films deposited on the moth-eye structure were carried out. The moth-eye structure arrays were fabricated by holographic exposure and photolithographic processes on the polymer film. The structure arrays were consisted of periodic length of about 300 nm, with the diameter of about 250 nm and the height of 150 nm. Compared with the silver coating film on the flat PET substrate, the optical property of the silver coating film on the moth-eye structure showed a better result for the anti-reflection application. The 25 nm-thick silver film on the moth-eye structure is suggested to be applied for the car window glass of antireflective films to obtain the high performance of heat insulation with acceptable transparency in the visible range.