Enhancement in broadband and quasi-omnidirectional antireflection of nanopillar arrays by ion milling

A new technique is developed to fabricate biomimetic antireflection coatings (ARCs). This technique combines a bottom-up fabrication approach (glancing angle deposition, or GLAD) with a top-down engineering process (ion milling). The GLAD technique is first utilized to produce nanopillar arrays (NPAs) with broadened structures, which are subsequently transformed into biomimetic tapered geometries by means of post-deposition ion milling. This structure transformation, due to milling-induced mass redistribution, remarkably decreases reflection over a wide wavelength range (300?1700?nm) and field of view (angle of incidence ?reflection losses. Additionally, ion bombardment tends to alter the stoichiometry and diminish the crystallographic structure of the NPA materials. The broadband and quasi-omnidirectional antireflection observed establishes the strong competitiveness of this technique with the methods previously reported.