Fabrication of highly uniform and porous MgF 2 anti-reflective coatings by polymer-based sol–gel processing on large-area glass substrates

Despite recent progress in the fabrication of magnesium fluoride (MgF 2 ) anti-reflective coatings (ARCs), simple, effective and scalable sol–gel fabrication of MgF 2 ARCs for large-area glass substrates has prospective application in various optoelectronic devices. In this paper, a polymer-based sol–gel route was devised to fabricate highly uniform and porous MgF 2 ARCs on large-area glass substrates. A sol–gel precursor made of polyvinyl acetate and magnesium trifluoroacetate assisted in the formation of uniformly mesoporous MgF 2 ARCs on glass substrates, leading to the attainment of a refractive index of ∼1.23. Systematic optimization of the thickness of the ARC in the sub-wavelength regime led to achieving ∼99.4% transmittance in the case of the porous MgF 2 ARC glass. Precise control of the thickness of porous MgF 2 ARC glass also resulted in a mere ∼0.1% reflection, virtually eliminating reflection off the glass su...

Hemant Kumar Raut, Saman Safari Dinachali, Kwadwo Konadu Ansah-Antwi, V Anand Ganesh and Seeram Ramakrishna

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