Design and preparation of reflection-reducing thin films and their optical characteristics

In recent years, with the development of optical communication and thin film process technology, the application of optical multilayer films has attracted considerable interest. In this research, the aim is to prepare reflection-reducing thin films which can be applied to solar cells and raise their performance. The optical films were designed using Essential Macleod simulation software, and then were fabricated by radio frequency (RF) sputtering equipment. Two kinds of targets were set, and prescribed flow rates of oxygen and argon gas were introduced into the chamber. The multilayer films were deposited on two sides and on one side of quartz glass substrates while controlling the materials and thickness under the simulation designs. The optical characteristics of the designed and experimented multilayer films were measured by a spectrophotometer. From the results of transmittance, it was found that the aimed multilayer films which have a high transmittance in the visible spectrum were able to be prepared successfully. If necessary the reflection-reducing wavelength range can be controlled by changing the accumulated sequence, materials, number of layers and thickness of each layer.