Refractive-tunable and hydrophobic antireflective coatings by PMHS-modification assisted sol-gel method

By a poly(methylhydrogen)siloxane (PMHS) modification assisted sol-gel method, refractive-tunable antireflective coatings (ARCs) were successfully prepared. The refractive indices of ARCs could be conveniently adjusted from 1.23 to 1.36. The water contact angle increased significantly from 27 to 128 after PMHS modification, which afforded ARCs better antireflective stability. After being kept in a closed container for 1 month with 95% relatively humidity at room temperature, the transmittance of unmodified and PMHS modified ARCs decreased by 1.6% and 0.2%, respectively.