This thesis provides an investigation and review of homogeneous multilayer anti-reflective coatings (ARC) on glass. Recently, numerical optimization has become popular in optimizing the number of layers at a defined wavelength range and at angular incident angles. In this investigation, the design of the index profile is optimized for normal incident angle and angular incident angles by an evolutionary genetic algorithm. The anti-reflective coatings consist of multilayer porous silica or tin oxide nanoparticle films, which are fabricated by mixing 10nm silica nanoparticle or 10nm tin oxide nanoparticle colloidal solutions with varying amounts of 50nm polystyrene colloidal solutions, followed by spin coating on a glass substrate, and sintering at 400˚C for 40 minutes, which burns off the embedded polystyrene and renders a voided matrix. Experiments were carried out to produce ARCs based on well-known index profiles, and based on genetic algorithm optimization

This thesis provides an investigation and review of homogeneous multilayer anti-reflective coatings (ARC) on glass. Recently, numerical optimization has become popular in optimizing the number of layers at a defined wavelength range and at angular incident angles. In this investigation, the design of the index profile is optimized for normal incident angle and angular incident angles by an evolutionary genetic algorithm. The anti-reflective coatings consist of multilayer porous silica or tin oxide nanoparticle films, which are fabricated by mixing 10nm silica nanoparticle or 10nm tin oxide nanoparticle colloidal solutions with varying amounts of 50nm polystyrene colloidal solutions, followed by spin coating on a glass substrate, and sintering at 400˚C for 40 minutes, which burns off the embedded polystyrene and renders a voided matrix. Experiments were carried out to produce ARCs based on well-known index profiles, and based on genetic algorithm optimization

Since the diamond like carbon features include high hardness and high wear resistance, low friction coefficient, chemical inertness, high resistance, low dielectric constant, the IR Transparency and field emission. The process of Diamond carbon film was usually by CVD or PVD techniques. However, high substrate temperature or low deposition rate and the can not make large area of films leads to limit the applications of diamond like film. Electrodeposition method is an innovative method to prepare DLC film and it meets these demands such as: equipment cheap, high deposition rate and larger area coatings. In this paper, ITO substrate was used for electrodeposition the diamond-like carbon films and to evaluate the possibility for the large area of DLC films.For the process of electrical deposition, the electrolyte consists of acetic acid and DI water mixed in different proportions. The deposition process were conditioned as: electrolyte concentration between 0.01% and 0.8%; voltage from 2.1V to 50V; growth temperature in the range of 300C ~ 850C. In addition, by using the control variables method, the deposition parameters including voltage, deposition temperature and solution concentration of electrolyte were varied to evaluate the characteristics and quality of diamond-like carbon films. The n & k film analyzer (n & k Analyze), X ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to characterize the surface morphology, microstructure and compositional analysis. The reflectivity, transmittance, and refractive index of DLC Films were revealed by the n & k analyzer. Hence, the best conditions used for anti-reflective layer and projections Eopg can be achieved. For SEM analysis, the DLC film with uniformity surface structure can be found. Additionally, the current - time graph can be used to predict the properties of film varied with the applied voltage, percent of concentrations, growth temperature etc.. The microstructure of DLC film was investigated by the XPS measurement; the sp2 / sp3 ratio varies from the growth parameters changes. The hydrogen content of DLC films was obtained by FTIR measurements, the contents decrease as the operating voltage, electrolyte concentration and the substrate temperature increase. As for the DLC deposited on ITO glass as an anti-reflective layer, the experimental results showed that DLC film can reduce the reflectivity from 40% to 70%. Finally, the results obtained show a reasonable match for various measurements. T he characteristics of DLC films also shows that it very depends on the deposited parameters and the relationship beteen them was discussed in detailed. Some of the advance study will be investigated in future.

In this thesis, strong optical feedback is utilized to realize broad-band wavelength tuning and to stabilize the frequency of a semiconductor diode laser in a grating-external-cavity (GEC) configuration. To reach the regime of strong optical feedback, the laser facet through which the feedback occurs has to be antireflection (AR) coated. Multi-layer AR coatings were designed using SiO2, Si3N4, SiOxNy, and a:Si for specific laser waveguide structures, and were fabricated by an electron cyclotron resonance, plasma enhanced, chemical vapor deposition (ECR-PECVD) system. The film thickness and refractive index were monitored by in situ ellipsometry during the deposition. This scheme permitted very low reflectivities, in the order of 5 x 10-4, to be readily and reproducibly obtained. The diode laser thus obtained was used in a strong feedback configuration. Light emitted from the coated facet was collimated and fed back onto the laser cavity after being reflected off a diffraction grating. The diffraction grating provides frequency selectivity, which is a desirable feature for obtaining a stable single longitudinal mode laser. The laser in this configuration oscillated in a single mode with a greater than 30 dB side mode suppression ratio and a wide tuning range. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

This research comprehensively reviews the properties of regular micro and nano structures fabricated by laser interference lithography and reports on their applications in the antireflection and self‐cleaning surface. The research systematically investigates the laser interference lithography technology taking into account its advantages and abilities to realize various potential applications. Multiple‐beam interference lithography systems are constructed. Laser interference interaction with silicon wafer is analysed and the optical and hydrophobic properties are obtained via measurements. In order to fabricate the extremely low reflection and very large contact angle for solar cells, fabrication methods of antireflection and self‐cleaning are surveyed and their advantages and disadvantages compared. The research investigates the effect of heat transfer and the radiation of laser interference plasma on silicon wafer surfaces and proposes equations of heat flow and radiation effects of laser plasma of interfering patterns in a four‐beam laser interference distribution. Following the irradiation, the silicon wafer surface is covered with a periodic array of micrometer and nanometer‐sized structures, which have the shape of grating, cone and hole. The research also investigates the effect of different laser parameters on the optical and hydrophobic properties of the structured silicon wafer surface. The results of periodic hexagonally‐distributed hole structures fabricated by three‐beam laser interference reveals excellent design guidelines for obtaining an extremely low solar‐weighted reflection, (SWR, 1.86%) and relatively large contact angle (140°) which can provide a strong self‐cleaning capability on the solar cell surface. In addition, the research creates a novel dual structure with antireflection and superhydrophobic properties fabricated by three‐beam laser interference lithography. The fabrication method is three‐beam laser interference combined with focused laser processing interacting on the silicon wafer surface. This kind of structure has a very low SWR (3.6 %) and extremely large contact angle which is more than 150° in the wavelength range from 380 nm to 780 nm. The research shows that the laser interference lithography technology can be employed and further developed to fabricate micro and nano structures of strong antireflection and self‐cleaning functions for applications in solar cells.

This thesis describes the works done during the design and deposition process of the antireflection coating for the materials commonly used as refractive optical elements in thermal imaging systems. These coatings are quite necessary to reduce reflection losses from the surface of the optics and stray light that directly affects the image quality. Germanium, zinc sulfide and zinc selenide were used as substrate material and their optical properties were investigated with infrared ellipsometry and FTIR. Antireflection coatings for each material operating in 8-12 &amp / #956 / m range were designed with Needle Synthesis Technique. In order to shorten the optimization time, commercial software / &ldquo / The Essential Macleod&rdquo / was used. In order to reduce the reflectance losses multilayer structure was used in the coating design, and zinc selenide and lead telluride were used as low and high index materials. In this study the necessary theoretical background and common deposition techniques are reviewed. Samples were produced using the magnetron sputtering. To optimize the v thicknesses of the deposited layers, growth period and rate was controlled. Thicknesses of the samples, following to the deposition were also measured by thickness profilometer. A 3-layer coating, PbTe/ZnSe/PbTe, on ZnS and 2-layer coating PbTe/ZnS on Ge having more than 90% transmittance in 9.7-10.3 &amp / #956 / m wavelength region have been successfully produced. Although, the measured range for 3 and 2- layer coating is narrower than the aimed one, it has been shown that, the method developed in this thesis would yield AR-coatings with broader spectral response if a system having better control on deposition parameters is used. For example, our design and optimization work has suggested that a 7-layer AR coating on germanium, with alternating high and low index layers is expected to give transmittance value greater than 93% in the studied wavelength region.

In order to improve the optical losses of spherical silicon solar cells, new fabrication designs were presented. The new device structures are fabricated based on integration of nanostructures into spherical silicon solar cells. These new device structures include: spherical silicon solar cells integrated with nanostructured antireflection coating layers, spherical silicon solar cells with hemispherical nanopit texturing, and cells integrated with colloidal quantum dots. Silicon spheres were characterized by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM), single-crystal x-ray diffraction and x-ray powder diffraction to establish the crystallinity nature of the silicon spheres. Furthermore, the material properties of silicon spheres including surface morphology, microwave photoconductivity decay lifetime, and impurity elemental distributions were studied. Silicon nitride antireflection coating layers were developed and deposited onto the spherical silicon solar cells, using a PECVD system. A low temperature hydrogenation plasma technique was developed to improve the passivation quality of the spherical silicon solar cells. The spectral response of silicon spheres with and without a silicon nitride antireflection coating was studied. We have successfully developed and integrated a nanostructured antireflection coating layer into spherical silicon solar cells. The nanostructured porous layer consists of graded-size silicon nanocrystals and quantum-size Si nanoparticles embedded in an oxide matrix. This layer has been characterized by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Scanning tunneling TEM, energy filtered TEM, transmission electron diffraction (TED), electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS), energy dispersive x-ray (EDX), Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). We developed a novel technique of electrochemical etching for silicon surface texturing using a liquid-phase deposition of oxide mask. Using a focus ion-beam (FIB) technique, cross-sectional TEM samples were prepared to investigate the nature of texturing and the composition of the deposited mask. The hemispherical nanopit texturing was successfully integrated into spherical silicon solar cells and the etching mechanisms and the chemical reactions were discussed. CdSe colloidal quantum dots with diameter of about 2.8nm were integrated into a graded-density nanoporous layer. This structure was implemented on the emitter of the spherical silicon solar cells and the spectral response with and without incorporation of QDs was studied.

We have studied several metamaterials structures with multiple layers by explaining them theoretically and verifying experimentally. The engineered structures we have designed work either as a perfect absorber or antireflection coating. The multilayer model as we call it Three Layer Model (TLM) has been developed, which gives the total reflection and transmission as a function of reflection and transmission of individual layers. By manipulating the amplitude and phase of the reflection and the transmission of the individual layers, we can get the required functionality of the optoelectronic devices. To get zero reflection in the both perfect absorber and the antireflection coating, the amplitude and phase conditions should be satisfied simultaneously. We have employed the numerical simulation of the structures to verify those conditions for all of the work presented here. As the theoretical retrieval method to extract the effective permittivity and effective permeability of the metamaterial contains air on the both side of the structure, we have dielectric at least on one side practically, that gives a little bit deviated result. We have modified the retrieval method to better fit with the multilayer structure by introducing air on the both side of the resonator using transfer matrix method and use it throughout all the works. We have explained the perfect absorption of the EM wave through Fabry-Perot cavity bounded by the resonator mirror and the metallic film. The metallic film acts as the close boundary whereas the resonator acts as the quasi-open boundary with very high effective permittivity, which leads to the characteristic feature of subwavelength thickness. We have shown numerically that the ultra-thin thickness makes the perfect absorber angular independent. We have also explained the phenomenon of perfect absorption through Impedance Matched Theory and Transmission Line Theory, and showed their matching with TLM. We have also developed the Meta Film Model by considering the resonator as a homogeneous thin film characterized by the effective permittivity and permeability giving rise to the same behavior as the original multilayer structure. We have shown that the resonance of the metamaterial resonator is very far from the resonance of the absorber, it behaves as the medium of high refractive index and very low loss. We have also shown that the density of states of the absorber is increased as compared to the resonator itself. We have investigated that the resonance peaks of the absorber arise from the combination of Fabry- Perot cavity modes and surface plasmon resonance modes. All the modes with increased spacer thickness are assigned with specific names describing the mode profiles. We have shown the application of perfect absorber as a refractive index sensor. It is used as a plasmonic sensor to detect the refractive index change of the chemical and biological samples. To increase the sensitivity, we have etched the dielectric spacer below the resonator, where electric field is localized and enhanced. We have found that the sensitivity (wavelength shift per refractive index change) and the Figure of Merit (FOM*) as an indicator of performance of the device both are enhanced significantly. We have employed metamaterial (MM) anti-reflection (AR) coating to avoid the shortcomings of the conventional thin film coating in three different cases of the structures. At first, we have deployed metamaterial Metal Disk Array (MDA) on the top of conventional coating material (BCB) with homogeneous substrate to enhance the transmission of EM wave. Then conventional AR coating is employed to the dispersive media (metal Hole Array) to enhance the transmission. We have shown that Impedance matched condition has been satisfied not only for homogeneous media, but for dispersive media also. At the end, we have employed the MM AR coating to the MM dispersive media (MHA). The two MM layers may interact with each other and may degrade the SPP wave of the MHA, which is essential to enhance the performance of the devices. To investigate the effect of interaction, we perform the simulation of the MDA, which shows that the resonance of the MDA is far from the antireflection resonance and hence the electric field of the SPP is significantly increased (~30%). With an improved retrieval method, the metasurface is proved to exhibit a high effective permittivity (εeff~30) and extremely low loss (tanδ~0.005). For all of the three AR structures, a classical thin film AR coating mechanism is identified through analytical derivations and numerical simulations. The properly designed εeff and μeff of the meta surface lead to the required phase and amplitude conditions for the AR coating, thereby paving the way for the improved performance of the optoelectronic devices. We have used MHA as a dispersive media to get extraordinary optical transmission (EOT). To understand the behavior of the SPP peaks, we have investigated the shifting and splitting of the spoof SPP resonance by varying the polar angle and azimuthal angle. The amplitude of extraordinary optical transmission also shows angle dependence and exhibits mirror-image or translational symmetries. Our measurements and simulations of the THz spoof SPP waves match very well with the theoretical predictions. The angle dependence results provide the important information for designing THz plasmonic devices in sensor and detector applications.

The Electrostatic Self-Assembly (ESA) technique possesses great advantages over traditional thin film fabrication methods, making it an excellent choice for a number of applications in the fields of linear and nonlinear optics, electronics, sensing and surface coatings. The feasibility of fabricating linear optical interference filters by ESA methods is demonstrated in this thesis work. Basic single-anion/single-cation ESA films are synthesized and their optical parameters -- refractive index and average thickness for individual bilayer -- are investigated to provide a basis for the in-depth design of optical filters. High performance dielectric stack filters and narrowband and wideband antireflection coatings are designed using TFCalc simulation software and are fabricated by ESA. Both bulk film sensitivity and layer sensitivity to manufacturing errors are provided. The significant agreement between simulation and experiment demonstrates the strong capability of ESA to precisely control the refractive index and produce excellent thin film filters. The performance of optical thin film filters is largely enhanced compared to the results of previous methods. The experiment results indicate that the ESA process may be used to fabricate optical filters and other optical structures that require precise index profile control. / Master of Science

The optical properties of solar cells greatly affect their efficiencies. Decreasing the broadband and directional reflectance of solar cells increases the solar irradiance transmitted and absorbed by the cell, thereby increasing the production of electron-hole pairs. Traditional optical enhancements such as light trapping and anti-reflection coatings reduce the reflectance of silicon at an optimized wavelength and angle of incidence. They do not perform as well at high angles of incidence or over the broadband solar spectrum. Theoretical studies suggest that layers with a suitable gradient-index of refraction can create both a broadband and directional anti-reflective coating. Through their variations in height and tapered growth, Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanowires can create a gradient index anti-reflection coating. ZnO is a wide-band gap semiconductor that is non-absorbing over most of the solar spectrum. With low cost, low temperature techniques, ZnO nanowires can be grown with a variety of morphologies. ZnO nanowires were grown by aqueous chemical growth and by electrodeposition on silicon to create a gradient-index anti-reflective coating for solar cell applications. The nanowire arrays were characterized using SEM images, goniometer scattering measurements, and integrating sphere total reflectance measurements. ZnO nanowires grown by aqueous chemical growth on silicon had average diameters between 60 nm and 100 nm and average lengths between 800 nm and 1100 nm. The nanowires had vertical alignment. They exhibited relatively small diffuse reflectivities and relatively large specular reflectivities. ZnO nanowires grown by electrodeposition had greater variances in length and diameter, with average diameters between 85 nm and 180 nm and average lengths between 500 nm and 1200 nm. Electrodeposited ZnO nanowires were randomly arrayed and exhibited relatively large diffuse reflectivities and relatively small specular reflectivities. Total reflectance measurements showed that all nanowire arrays reduced the broadband reflectance of silicon. Smaller nanowire arrays outperformed the larger crystal growths. A five-fold decrease in the broadband reflectance of silicon was obtained from both vertical and randomly oriented nanowire arrays. The reflectances were constant for angles of incident below 35°. Measurements at angles of incidence greater than 35° are required to determine whether ZnO nanowires can perform as directional anti-reflective coatings and whether the morphology of the nanowires affects the directional reflectances.