This paper reports a novel hot embossing technique using rapid heating and uniform pressure for replication of microstructures on polymeric substrates.
We develop a simple and competitive fabrication of antireflective (AR) films with high-ordered nanostructure arrays on polycarbonate (PC) substrate by using gas-assisted hot embossing and a self-assembled technique. In this method, a self-assembled monolayer of polystyrene (PS) nanospheres is well-patterned on glass substrates as the first template. Subsequently, we use the plasma sputtering to deposit a conductive layer onto the surface of nanosphere (NS) patterned substrates, and then, electroforming is applied to fabricate a nickel mold with an inverse shape of nanospheres. In the last step, a unique glass transition is utilized to duplicate nanostructures on PC films via gas-assisted hot embossing. Not only in visible light but in near infrared, the optical properties of this AR film are similar or better than for other methods. This fabrication process also has great potential in industry, with its simplicity, large-area but low-cost.
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