Optical quality mesoporous alumina thin films

Abstract

Abstract A robust method for the preparation of optical-quality mesoporous alumina thin films is presented, using evaporation induced self assembly of triblock copolymer surfactants. The use of lowly reactive aluminium chloride as a precursor and a tertiary alcohol as a novel chloride scavenger results in highly homogeneous and smooth films with consistent controllable thickness between 30 and 100 nm . The films show very low refractive index and high transparency from UV to NIR regions, providing a new building block for solution processing of devices requiring low-κ materials.