Scattering analysis for random antireflective structures on fused silica in the ultraviolet

Random antireflective structures are fabricated on fused silica by the thermal dewetting process and reactive ion etching, which shows a broadband antireflective effect over the whole visible wavelength. However, the transmittance in the ultraviolet is limited by the scattering from the etched structures. A graded refractive index model ignoring the scattering in the visible range is applied to extract the etched profile. Then the Lubachevsky-Stillinger algorithm is used to reconstruct the random antireflective structures with the extracted profile. Bidirectional scattering distribution for the reconstructed structures is simulated with the finite-difference time-domain method, which indicates the importance of transmissive scattering the scattering directivity. The scattering directivity is explained well with an effective grating model. The period of the effective grating can guide the prepared technique in the ultraviolet.