Design and fabrication of MgF2 single-layer antireflection coating by glancing angle deposition

In this work, MgF2 single-layers are designed by the Essential Macleod program and prepared by physical vapour deposition (PVD) using the glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique. The samples were prepared at 0°, 25°, 70°, and 80° deposition angles. The optical, morphological, and structural properties of the films studied by UV–VIS, field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The crystallinity of the grown films decreased upon increasing deposition angle, which is characteristic of GLAD technique. A good agreement was found between optical transmission spectra of the designed and the deposited films. The refractive index of samples decreased from 1.46 to 1.29 as the deposition angle increased from 0° to 80°. The extinction coefficient of samples increased from 0.0027 to 0.0052 as the deposition angle increased from 0° to 80°. © 2020 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.