Smart nanostructured optical coatings prepared by pulsed plasma-based techniques

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The field of coating and surface engineering technology is evolving very rapidly thanks to the synergy between the progress in materials science, development of new fabrication processes and ever increasing technical, environmental and economic challenges. Moreover, the range of applications of OCs continues to broaden, offering attractive opportunities in areas such as telecommunications, displays, energy saving, sensing and environmental control, lasers, lighting, instrumentation, consumer electronics, health-related devices, document security and numerous others.      The strive to develop new materials with complex nanostructures on 2D/3D levels has resulted in the discovery of new optical effects that could find use in multiple applications such as smart (active) optical coating (SOC) systems and functional metasurfaces (FMS) with tailored electrochromic, thermochromic, plasmonic, selective catalytic and other properties suitable for their implementation in smart multifunctional optical filters (SOFs).      In response to the challenges in the area of OC described above, the proposed program will advance cutting edge research on the growth of thin films and modification of surfaces using low pressure, pulse-managed plasma processes (PMPP) to fabricate structurally controlled SOCs and FMS with tailored properties, suitable for their use in SOFs. Specifically, it will focus on the following aspects:      a) Using the PMPP, such as high power impulse magnetron sputtering (HiPIMS), we plan to explore film growth in tandem with plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD), Plasma Enhanced Atomic Layer Deposition (PE-ALD) and Glancing Angle Deposition (GLAD) for their potential synergistic effects. Main interest will be devoted to the new possibilities offered by controlled pulse modulation of the discharge parameters and of the plasma-surface interactions to synthesize active and passive materials in the form of homogeneous films with controlled density, nanostructure, crystallinity and porosity, as well as optical nanostructures comprising well defined surface patterns, and nanoparticles obtained by gas phase aggregation.      b) Integration of the nanostructured smart OC within complete multilayer SOFs will be performed with the aim to demonstrate device functions suitable for applications in the areas of energy control and saving (smart windows and smart radiators), security (anticounterfeiting and authentication), gas and vapor sensors, and others. The program is based on the holistic approach to functional coatings and surface engineering, that includes all necessary steps to close the logistic loop involving four essential components, namely (i) optical coating design, (ii) process development including diagnostics and monitoring, (iii) materials synthesis, and (iv) materials and device characterization and functional testing.