Fabrication of Wear-Resistant and Anti-Reflection Surfaces Based on Armor-Protected Nanocone Structures.

Antireflection surfaces play an indispensable role in modern optics, with extensive applications covering optical windows and other precision optical components. The fabrication of anti-reflection surfaces frequently relies on micro/nano-structuring technologies. However, the fabricated micro/nanostructures typically experience performance degradation in transmission enhancement caused by abrasion during operation. To address this problem, we designed and fabricated a double-sided nanocone structure shielded by a protective armor layer. This armor layer efficiently prevents surface mechanical wear and preserves the nanocone structures, leading to almost constant transmittance of the anti-reflection surface even after abrasion. The anti-reflection surface was fabricated by first patterning a square grid armor on one side of fused silica via photolithography, followed by the preparation of an etching mask and nanocone structures using reactive ion etching (RIE). Nanocones were then fabricated on the opposite side of the substrate, finally forming the double-sided nanocone structure. The fabricated armor-protected double-sided nanocone structure exhibited an increase in the average transmittance from 93.43% to 98.31% within the wavelength range of 800-1200 nm. After abrasion testing under 10 MPa pressure, the nanocones under the protective armor showed almost no damage, and the average transmittance remained at approximately 97.85%, demonstrating the outstanding mechanical robustness of the proposed design.