Reversibly Erasable Broadband Omnidirectional Antireflection Coatings Inspired by Inclined Conical Structures on...

Blue-tailed forest hawk dragonfly (Orthetrum triangulare) wings, covered with inclined conical structures, are studied for their high transparency and low reflectance for large viewing angles. However, limited by existing technologies, the exquisite inclined structures are not replicated easily or applied adequately. Here, we combine a shear-induced self-assembly approach and a colloidal lithography technology to create omnidirectional antireflection structures that are inspired by dragonfly wings. Nonclose-packed colloid crystals are spin-coated and serve as structural templates in a plasma etching procedure to pattern subwavelength inclined conical structures directly on shape memory polymer-coated substrates. The dependence of the antireflection functionality on the shape and inclination of conical structures is systematically investigated in this research. Compared with a featureless substrate, the structure-covered substrate can display an approximately 8% higher average transmittance in the visible wavelength range at normal incidence and even approximately 23% higher average transmittance as the incident angle increases to 75°. Moreover, the reconfigurable structures composed of shape memory polymers can be repeatedly deformed and recovered as a result of external stimuli at ambient conditions, and the corresponding broadband omnidirectional antireflection functionality is therefore reversibly erased and restored.