UV-Induced Synthesis of Hybrid HMDSO/SiO2 Thin Films with Compositional Gradients for High-Performance Atomic Oxygen Resistance.

A flexible, dense, defect-free, highly adhesive, and highly dissociation energy-rich protective coating is essential to enhance the atomic oxygen (AO) resistance of polymeric materials in a low Earth orbit (LEO). In this work, a dense, defect-free hybrid HMDSO/SiO2 thin film coating with compositional gradients on the surface of polyimide was synthesized using vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) irradiation. The effects of VUV irradiation on the morphology, optical transmittance, and chemical components of plasma-polymerized HMDSO (pp-HMDSO) thin-film coatings deposited on the polyimide surface were investigated in depth. There were no defects such as cracks and holes in the surface morphology of pp-HMDSO films after VUV irradiation, but the surface roughness increased slightly, and the corresponding optical transmittance decreased slightly. The chemical components of pp-HMDSO films were changed in the depth direction starting from the top of the surface, forming hybrid HMDSO/SiO2 thin films with compositional gradients. The component gradient HMDSO/SiO2 composite coating further enhanced the atomic oxygen resistance of the polyimide due to the surface layer of the UV-modified coating enriched with high dissociation energy SiOx material. Therefore, this work provides a facile UV-induced synthesis method to prepare dense, defect-free, and highly dissociation energy-rich protective gradient coatings, which are promising not only for excellent AO protection in LEO but also for potential application in water-oxygen barrier films.

General Strategy toward Laser Single-Step Generation of Multiscale Anti-Reflection Structures by Marangoni Effect.

The anti-reflection of transparent material surfaces has attracted great attention due to its potential applications. In this paper, a single-step controllable method based on an infrared femtosecond laser is proposed for self-generation multiscale anti-reflection structures on glass. The multiscale composite structure with ridge structures and laser-induced nano-textures is generated by the Marangoni effect. By optimizing the laser parameters, multiscale structure with broadband anti-reflection enhancement is achieved. Meanwhile, the sample exhibits good anti-glare performance under strong light. The results show that the average reflectance of the laser-textured glass in the 300-800 nm band is reduced by 45.5% compared with the unprocessed glass. This work provides a simple and general strategy for fabricating anti-reflection structures and expands the potential applications of laser-textured glass in various optical components, display devices, and anti-glare glasses.