Bioinspired silica surfaces with near-infrared improved transmittance and superhydrophobicity by colloidal lithography.

In this paper, we report a kind of bioinspired high performance near-infrared improved transmittance silica surfaces with superhydrophobic properties by colloidal lithography, with transmittance about 99% from 1300 to 2000 nm. Meanwhile, the optical properties of such surfaces can be controlled by the antireflective structure morphologies resulting from the different reactive ion etching conditions. Using proper microspheres as mask, the high-performance near-infrared telecommunication optics can be achieved. Besides, the antireflective surfaces possess superhydrophobic properties after modified by fluorosilane. Such antireflective surfaces are promising for fabrication of highly light transmissive, antireflective, and superhydrophobic near-infrared optical materials to be used in many important fields.