Particle size and polymer formation dependence of nanostructure in antireflective surfaces by injection molding process

Abstract

Abstract The effects of nanomolding characteristics on an antireflective surface fabricated via injection molding were investigated. The optical property of a sub-wavelength structure (SWS) of our own making was also measured. The sizes of nanostructures fabricated on SWS molds were controlled by changing the average particle diameters used as mask and the time of reactive ion etching. The maximum filling ratio of the injected polymer was increased from 51.7% to 90.4% by changing the average particle diameters from 83.8 nm to 111.2 nm. In addition, the filled ratio of the injected polymer was increased from 51.7% to 73.7% under the same processing conditions. The results of the measurements of the optical property indicated that the reflectance of small-sized and large-sized SWSs fabricated with the same process condition was decreased at the wavelengths of 550 nm and 980 nm, respectively. The wavelength showed that the minimum reflectance was varied from the visible range to the near-infrared range by changing the size of the SWS under the same processing condition. This result led us to conclude that we can obtain antireflection surfaces for any wavelength by varying the size of the SWS under the same injection-molding condition.