Optical performance of random anti-reflection structures on curved surfaces

Random anti-reflection structured surfaces (rARSS) have been reported to improve transmittance of optical-grade fused silica planar substrates to values greater than 99%. These textures are achieved using reactive-ion etching techniques and often result in transmitted spectra with no measurable interference effects (fringes) for a wide range of wavelengths. The inductively-coupled reactive ion plasma (ICP-RIE) used in the fabrication process to etch the rARSS is anisotropic, and thus well-suited for planar components. The improvement in spectral transmission has been found to be independent of optical incidence angles, for values from 0° to ±30°. Qualifying and quantifying the rARSS performance on curved substrates, such as concave and convex lenses, is required to optimize the fabrication of a desirable AR effect on opticalpower elements. In this work, rARSS was fabricated on fused silica plano-convex and plano-concave lenses, using an optimized ICP-RIE process, to maximize optical transmission in the range from 500 nm to 1100 nm. Results are presented from optical transmission tests of matched sets of varying curvature lenses with rARSS at a wavelength of 633nm. The transmission was measured as a function of radial distance from the apex of each lens, and shows the anisotropic dependence of the etch process. The transmittance profiles between the different sphericity of the tested lenses as well as the matched sets of concave and convex surfaces are compared. The measured angle-of-incidence dependence of planar silica versus silica lenses with rARSS is also presented.