Sol-Gel Preparation of PHFBMA/PFG/Silica Coatings with Durable Short-wave-band Antireflective Performance

A new silica shortwave-band antireflective (AR) coating with durable optical performance on fused silica substrate was prepared by a base-catalyzed Sol-Gel process using tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as a precursor. 1H, 1H, 12H, 12H-perfluoro-dodecane-1, 12-diol (simplified as PFG) was used to control the structure and size of the sil- ica particles in the sols, and hence decreased the refractive indices of the coatings. After Poly (2, 2, 3, 4, 4, 4-hexafluorobutyl) methacrylate (PHFBMA) being introduced into the silica sols, the AR coatings could retain a transmission about 99.9% at about 300 nm. At the same time, the transmission stability of the coatings was improved significantly, which were tested in a moisture environment and an organic-containing vacuum chamber, respectively.