Porous antireflective coatings with controlled thickness and refractive index on glass

Abstract Porous antireflective (AR) coatings were prepared by the neutral solution leaching of borosilicate glass. The textured surfaces typically exhibit broadband and wide-angle AR behavior with an extremely low scattering over 300–1400 nm spectral range. The coating thickness increases with increase in the solution concentration, temperature and etching time, leading to the tunable transmittance spectra in the entire wavelength range. And the thickness and corresponding refractive index of AR coatings can be calculated using transmittance simulation. The relationship of experimental variations, coating thickness and etching rate was obtained and discussed. These porous AR coatings with controlled thickness and refractive index would have broad potential applications.