Breakthroughs in photonics 2013: Organic nanostructures for antireflection

The processing of organic substances by vacuum deposition is opening new possibilities for the properties of optical surfaces. Organic small molecules can be evaporated and deposited like optical thin films. Plasma etching, which has been successfully applied to generate nanostructures on polymer substrates, is now used for obtaining antireflective nanostructures on top of interference stacks on glass. The latest results in achieving excellent antireflective properties for a wide range of light incidence angles were accomplished through multiple etching of polymer substrates and organic layers.