PVD coating for optical applications on temperature-resistant thermoplastics

Abstract

The performance of the high temperature resistant polymers Pleximid®, APEC® and Ultrason® as substrate materials in plasma-assisted physical vapor deposition processes was studied and compared with well-known thermoplastics for optical applications. Different effects of UV irradiation and plasma exposure on the polymers' optical features, surface energy and adhesion properties for oxide layers, typically used for interference multilayer coatings, are shown

Optical coating on transparent plastics

“…Electron beam gun evaporated oxide layers deposited with plasma ion assistance show the best adhesion on certain types of polycycloolefines, polycarbonates, polyamides and polyethersulfones. Especially the poly-cycloolefine polymers ZeonexE48R ® and Topas5013 ® and the polyethersulfone Ultrason ® provide excellent adhesion properties irrespective of pre-treatment condition [4,5]. These materials meet the requirements for the deposition of very thick interference coatings like scratch resistant antireflective coatings, beam splitters or filters.…”

Creating Anti‐Reflective Nanostructures on Polymers by Initial Layer Deposition before Plasma Etching

“…[8,9] Efforts to use this process, which had been established for PMMA, for the structuring of other types of polymers (e.g., Zeonex 1 , polycarbonate) were unsuccessful until a new process was developed. [10] A thin initial layer deposited on the sample surface prior to plasma etching changes the structuring conditions, and as a result many different polymers can now be rendered anti-reflective by a simple plasma treatment. [11] In contrast to the ''pure'' etching process, whereby the texturing could hardly be influenced, this new method opens up the possibility of controlling the structure formation on the polymer surface predominantly through the properties of the pre-coating.…”

“…This nanostructure acts like a gradient layer with decreasing effective refractive index towards air 8, 9. Efforts to use this process, which had been established for PMMA, for the structuring of other types of polymers (e.g., Zeonex®, polycarbonate) were unsuccessful until a new process was developed 10. A thin initial layer deposited on the sample surface prior to plasma etching changes the structuring conditions, and as a result many different polymers can now be rendered anti‐reflective by a simple plasma treatment 11.…”