Nanocoining Of Optical Features

Abstract

The use of non-reflective surfaces in consumer and commercial manufacturing has become increasingly popular. Whether they are used to reduce reflection on a monitor or increase the efficiency of photovoltaic solar cells, the advantages are being recognized and the demand is increasing. The limitation of these non-reflective surfaces is the length of time required to produce a useable quantity, usually by deposition techniques. This paper describes an approach to creating non-reflective optical features with a high throughput.

The goal of this research is to create non-reflective surfaces through a process of nanocoining. Nanocoining using a nanostructured diamond die to imprint the non-reflective structure on to a mold surface. This type of manufacturing requires the design of an ultrasonic actuator (50 kHz) to produce the indentations at a high rate. The physical process of the nano-indentation is investigated to understand how material behaves at the nano-scale. A functional system will be produced by creating experimental indents and comparing them to FEA results while simultaneously designing a resonant structure capable of achieving the required displacements at ultrasonic speeds. The ultrasonic actuator along with the ability to create nanostructured features are the key elements to producing optical quality non-reflective surfaces efficiently.

Single nanostructured indent measured with SEM at 10000x .

The following faculty, students, and PEC affiliates are involved in this project: