Fabrication of Moth-eye Antireflective Nanostructures via Oxygen Ion-beam Etching on a UV-curable Polymer

Abstract

We report a low-cost, high-throughput process for fabricating a moth-eye-like anti-reflector on a curved surface. First, a curved surface was made from a UV-curable resin via UV imprinting. Then, the moth-eye-like structures were formed directly on the polymer surface via oxygen ion-beam etching. This produced flexible, transparent, and curved polymer products with anti-reflective properties. The method avoids duplication, which is generally needed for conventional anti-reflector fabrication. We compared the anti-reflective performance both flat and curved lenses before and after etching. The reflectance after etching for 150 s was substantially 10% lower than that of the non-etched surface. The usefulness of this method for polymer optical products with anti-reflective properties was demonstrated.