Plasma-etched organic layers for antireflection purposes

Organic layers can be used to realize special functions in optical interference coatings. Suitable compounds for such layers were thermally evaporated and characterized. A plasma etching procedure was applied to produce nanostructures on top of the organic layers to reduce their effective refractive indices. Broadband antireflective coatings were obtained by combining these artificial low-index layers with conventionally prepared interference stacks.