Development of Nanostructured Antireflection Coatings for EO/IR Sensor and Solar Cell Applications

Abstract

Electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) nanosensors are being developed for a variety of defense and commercial systems applications. One of the critical technologies that will enhance EO/IR sensor performance is the development of advanced antireflection coatings. In this paper, we review our latest work on high quality nanostructure-based antireflection structures, including recent efforts to deposit nanostructured antireflection coatings on IR substrates. Nanostructured antireflection coatings fabricated via oblique angle deposition are shown to enhance the optical transmission through transparent windows by minimizing reflection losses at the spectral band of interest to less than one percent, a substantial improvement over conventional thin-film antireflection coating technologies. Step-graded antireflection structures also exhibit excellent omnidirectional performance, and have recently been demonstrated with good performance in medium wavelength and long wavelength IR spectral bands.