ZnSe hollow nanospheres in mechanically stable near-IR antireflection coatings for ZnSe substrates

Abstract

Though possessing low absorption throughout a wide infrared (IR) spectral regime, owing to a high refractive index, zinc selenide substrates are generally covered by antireflection coatings (ARCs) for practical optical uses. However, achieving a high transmission of ZnSe substrates in the near-IR (NIR) region is still challenging. Herein, for the first time, colloidal ZnSe hollow nanospheres (HNSs) smaller than 100 nm were prepared and adopted to assemble ARCs for ZnSe substrates. The voiding kinetics of the HNSs was found to agree well with the nanoscale Kirkendall effect, and the self-diffusion of the Zn ion in the core was faster than its diffusion through the ZnSe shell. With single-index ARCs, the transmission of ZnSe substrates was remarkably enhanced in the NIR region, with up to an 18% increase at 840 nm. Besides, the ZnSe HNS-based ARCs showed superior mechanical stability even under violent ultrasonication in organic solutions. We expect that ZnSe HNSs will make it possible to construct graded-index ARCs to realize omnidirectional and broadband antireflection in IR, through further tuning of HNSs’ void fraction.