Investigations of sol-gel ZnO films nanostructured by reactive ion beam etching for broadband anti-reflection

• A novel ZnO dry etching approach is introduced using reactive ion beam etching of thick sol-gel ZnO layers for controlled nanodisk/nanocone array fabrication. In this approach the same system can be used for the colloidal lithography mask (silica particles) size reduction by a fluorine-based chemistry and etching of the ZnO nanostructures by a CH4/H2/Ar chemistry. This resulted in a ZnO:SiO2 etch selectivity of ~3.4 and etch rate of ~56 nm/min. Thick sol-gel ZnO layers, nanodisk arrays and (truncated) nanocone arrays were fabricated and their optical properties analyzed by finite-difference time-domain simulations and spectrally-resolved total/specular reflectivity measurements. The demonstrated broadband omnidirectional anti-reflection, controlled nanostructure period/geometry and low absorption in the visible-NIR spectrum makes these sol-gel ZnO nanostructures very interesting for many optoelectronic applications, including photovoltaics.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Fysik -- Annan fysik (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Physical Sciences -- Other Physics Topics (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)