Design and realization of advanced multi-index systems.

Practically all thin film systems for normal incidence can be realized using only two-layer materials. But for oblique incidence, polarization effects occur, designs may become complex, and polarization control is difficult or impossible to achieve. Here multi-index or gradient designs offer additional degrees of freedom, and can simplify or even enable challenging designs. Such gradient thin film stacks can be designed ab initio without any start or index profile approximations using a new design software developed by Carl Zeiss. With this software, a rugate omnidirectional AR coating was calculated and transferred to three different multi-index systems. All three examples were realized using ion beam sputter technology, and characterized at Laser Zentrum Hannover. Here we present comparative measurements of the optical performance together with femtosecond laser-induced damage threshold measurements.

Antireflective subwavelength structures on microlens arrays-comparison of various manufacturing techniques.

Antireflective subwavelength structures (ARS) resembling nanostructures found on the cornea of night-active insects reduce the reflection of light by providing a gradual change in the refractive index at the interface. These artificial ARS have mainly been fabricated by a combination of conventional lithography and reactive ion etching, which constrains their application to planar substrates. We report on the fabrication of ARS using three different techniques including bottom-up and top-down methods as well as their combination on microlens arrays (MLAs) made of fused silica. The optical performance of the resulting ARS on the MLAs is as good as ARS fabricated on planar substrates with increased transmission of up to 96% at certain wavelengths.

Simulating different manufactured antireflective sub-wavelength structures considering the influence of local topographic variations.

Laterally structured antireflective sub-wavelength structures show unique properties with respect to broadband performance, damage threshold and thermal stability. Thus they are superior to classical layer based antireflective coatings for a number of applications. Dependent on the selected fabrication technology the local topography of the periodic structure may deviate from the perfect repetition of a sub-wavelength unit cell. We used rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) to simulate the efficiency losses due to scattering effects based on height and displacement variations between the individual protuberances. In these simulations we chose conical and Super-Gaussian shapes to approximate the real profile of fabricated structures. The simulation results are in accordance with the experimentally determined optical properties of sub-wavelength structures over a broad wavelength range. Especially the transmittance reduction in the deep-UV could be ascribed to these variations in the sub-wavelength structures.

Tailored antireflective biomimetic nanostructures for UV applications.

Antireflective surfaces composed of biomimetic sub-wavelength structures that employ the 'moth eye principle' for reflectance reduction are highly desirable in many optical applications such as solar cells, photodetectors and laser optics. We report an efficient approach for the fabrication of antireflective surfaces based on a two-step process consisting of gold nanoparticle mask generation by micellar block copolymer nanolithography and a multi-step reactive ion etching process. Depending on the RIE process parameters nanostructured surfaces with tailored antireflective properties can easily be fabricated that show optimum performance for specific applications.

Biomimetic interfaces for high-performance optics in the deep-UV light range.

We report an innovative approach for the fabrication of highly light transmissive, antireflective optical interfaces. This is possible due to the discovery that metallic nanoparticles may be used as a lithographic mask to etch nonstraightforward structures into fused silica, which results in a quasihexagonal pattern of hollow, pillar-like protuberances. The far reaching optical performance of these structures is demonstrated by reflection and transmission measurements at oblique angles of incidence over a broad spectral region ranging from deep-ultraviolet to infrared light.

Synthesis, complexation, and coordination oligomerization of 1,8-pyrazine-capped 5,12-dioxocyclams.

(Methyl)(methoxy)-5,12-dioxocyclam 1 was alkylated on the secondary amines (capped) with 2,6-bis(bromomethyl)pyrazine. The resulting macrocycle was complexed to copper(II) to produce a five-coordinate complex 5a which was fully characterized by a range of spectroscopic methods (IR, UV-vis, ESR) as well as by X-ray crystallography. The structure of this complex is similar to the previously reported pyridine complex, with the five-coordinate copper having distorted square pyramidal geometry and a Cu-Pz bond length of 2.125 A. Attempts to prepare this same complex under microwave irradiation instead produced a trinuclear complex 6a having an octahedral copper(II) center complexed to two pyrazine-cyclam copper units through the amide carbonyl oxygen and the methoxyl group oxygen of the cyclam unit. The X-ray crystal structure of the trinuclear complex showed extensive distortion in the cyclam rings. The remote nitrogen of pyrazine-cyclam complex 5a was capable of coordinating an additional metal. Treatment with RuCl(2)(DMSO)(4) or Rh(2)(OAc)(4), respectively, produced trimetallic Cu-Ru-Cu complex 7 or tetrametallic Cu-Rh-Rh-Cu complex 8. The latter was fully characterized, including an X-ray crystal structure, and had two pyrazine-cyclam complexes bridged by a Rh(2)(OAc)(4) unit through the remote pyrazine nitrogens. There was little distortion in the pyrazine-cyclam copper units as compared to complex 5a: the four metals were collinear, and the two cyclam units were eclipsed. All of the copper complexes were subjected to cyclic voltametry measurements, and no reversible redox changes were observed. Magnetic measurements of 6a and 8 showed the copper atoms to be weakly antiferromagnetically coupled.