Optical elements with ultrahigh spatial-frequency surface corrugations

Enger, Rolf C.; Case, Steven K.

doi:10.1364/ao.22.003220

Cited by 191 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…This allows for use of the technology on a much larger range of materials compared to thin films and eliminates the issues related with film-substrate adhesion. The very low levels of reflectance achieved by nature using moth-eye arrays have inspired many attempts to replicate such structures in technologically-important materials including photoresist on glass [6][7][8][9], in quartz [10][11][12][13][14] and in silicon [15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Applications include solar cells [7,22,23 [27] are often employed for this, however these processes lend themselves to the formation of regular arrays of pillars arranged in a square or hexagonal array across the whole of the patterned area.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suppression of backscattered diffraction from sub-wavelength ‘moth-eye’ arrays

Stavroulakis¹,

Boden²,

Bagnall³

2013

Opt. Express

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Abstract:The eyes and wings of some species of moth are covered with arrays of nanoscale features that dramatically reduce reflection of light. There have been multiple examples where this approach has been adapted for use in antireflection and antiglare technologies with the fabrication of artificial moth-eye surfaces. In this work, the suppression of iridescence caused by the diffraction of light from such artificial regular moth-eye arrays at high angles of incidence is achieved with the use of a new tiled domain design, inspired by the arrangement of features on natural moth-eye surfaces. This bio-mimetic pillar architecture contains high optical rotational symmetry and can achieve high levels of diffraction order power reduction. For example, a tiled design fabricated in silicon and consisting of domains with 9 different orientations of the traditional hexagonal array exhibited a ~96% reduction in the intensity of the −1 diffraction order. It is suggested natural moth-eye surfaces have evolved a tiled domain structure as it confers efficient antireflection whilst avoiding problems with high angle diffraction. This combination of antireflection and stealth properties increases chances of survival by reducing the risk of the insect being spotted by a predator. Furthermore, the tiled domain design could lead to more effective artificial moth-eye arrays for antiglare and stealth applications. 1142-1146 (1987). 9. S. J. Wilson and M. C. Hutley, "The optical properties of "moth eye" antireflection surfaces," Opt. Acta (Lond.) 29(7), 993-1009 (1982). 10. R. C. Enger and S. K. Case, "Optical elements with ultrahigh spatial-frequency surface corrugations," Appl. Opt. 3220-3228 (1983). 11. K. M. Baker, "Highly corrected close-packed microlens arrays and moth-eye structuring on curved surfaces," Appl. Opt. 38(2), 352-356 (1999 53-56 (1997). 19. D. L. Brundrett, T. K. Gaylord, and E. N. Glytsis, "Polarizing mirror/absorber for visible wavelengths based on a silicon subwavelength grating: design and fabrication," Appl. Opt. 37(13), 2534-2541 (1998). 20. Y. Kanamori, K. Hane, H. Sai, and H. Yugami, "100 nm period silicon antireflection structures fabricated using a porous alumina membrane mask," Appl. Phys. Lett. 22(20),

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Suppression of backscattered diffraction from sub-wavelength ‘moth-eye’ arrays

Stavroulakis¹,

Boden²,

Bagnall³

2013

Opt. Express

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“…1͑a͔͒, quartz, 7,8 polymer, 9 GaSb, 10 and silicon [11][12][13][14][15] have been patterned on a scale below the wavelength of incident light to create biomimetic "moth-eye" AR surfaces. A simple understanding of the AR process can be gained by considering incident light responding to a spatial average of the optical properties of any given interface volume dependent on the fraction of substrate to surrounding medium.…”

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confidence: 99%

Tunable reflection minima of nanostructured antireflective surfaces

Boden

Bagnall

2008

Applied Physics Letters

296

195

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Broadband antireflection schemes for silicon surfaces based on the moth-eye principle and comprising arrays of subwavelength-scale pillars are applicable to solar cells, photodetectors, and stealth technologies and can exhibit very low reflectances. We show that rigorous coupled wave analysis can be used to accurately model the intricate reflectance behavior of these surfaces and so can be used to explore the effects of variations in pillar height, period, and shape. Low reflectance regions are identified, the extent of which are determined by the shape of the pillars. The wavelengths over which these low reflectance regions operate can be shifted by altering the period of the array. Thus the subtle features of the reflectance spectrum of a moth-eye array can be tailored for optimum performance for the input spectrum of a specific application.

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“…90 However, a pattern dened in photoresist is delicate and so an etch is oen employed, using the resist as a mask, to transfer the structures into the harder underlying substrate. Examples of patterning glass/quartz substrates this way include using CHF 3 reactive ion etching (RIE) 91 and SF 6 fast atom beam (FAB) etching 92 through a resist mask. To fabricate taller features, a more robust etch mask is oen used.…”

Section: Fabrication Of Articial Moth-eye Structuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Light Capture

Boden

Temple

2014

Materials Challenges

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The efficient capture of light is an essential factor for consideration in all solar cell designs. This chapter explores antireflective and light trapping schemes designed to reduce optical losses in solar cells with the aim of improving device efficiency. After a survey of the different mechanisms available for antireflection and light trapping, the various schemes employing these mechanisms are described. This begins with the traditional methods of thin film antireflective coatings and large (micron) scale texturing before moving onto more recent developments in the use of subwavelength texturing, taking inspiration from natural ‘moth-eye’ antireflective surfaces. Finally, the rapidly emerging field of plasmonics for photovoltaics is explored in which metal nanoparticles scatter incoming light through the generation of localized surface plasmons. In each section, the simulation techniques used for design optimization are introduced and methods for experimental realization and implementation in a range of photovoltaic devices are described. The associated increases in cost and complexity conferred to the solar cell fabrication process are also considered because these are the main hindrances to wide scale adoption of new strategies of light capture.

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Optical elements with ultrahigh spatial-frequency surface corrugations

Cited by 191 publications

References 15 publications

Suppression of backscattered diffraction from sub-wavelength ‘moth-eye’ arrays

Suppression of backscattered diffraction from sub-wavelength ‘moth-eye’ arrays

Tunable reflection minima of nanostructured antireflective surfaces

Light Capture

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