Mechanical strength is an essential parameter that influences and limits the lifetime performance of antireflective (AR) coatings in optical devices. Specifically, amphiphobic AR coatings with reduced reflectance are of great significance as they considerably enlarge the range of fundamental applications. Herein, we describe the design and fabrication of amphiphobic AR coatings with reduced reflectance and enhanced mechanical resilience. Introducing a thin polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) layer on top of the bilayer SiO₂ coating via vapor deposition method makes it highly liquid repellent. We achieved reduced reflectance (< 1%) over the entire visible wavelength range, as well as tunability according to the desired wavelength region. The fabricated film showed better thermal stability (up to 300 ℃) with stable AR efficiency, when an ultrathin dense coat of Al₂O₃ was deposited via atomic layer deposition (ALD) on the polymer-based bilayer SiO₂ antireflective coating (P-BSAR). The experimental results prove that the omnidirectional AR coating in this study exhibits multifunctional properties and should be suitable for the production of protective optical equipment and biocompatible polymer films for the displays of portable electronic devices.

Slanted Fe nanorods prepared by glancing angle deposition on silicon substrates exhibited easy magnetization along their growth axis. By using a thin gold film on a silicon substrate as a buffer layer, slanted Fe nanorods can be realigned towards the substrate surface normal by a strong magnetic field. After realignment, the Fe nanorods retained the easy magnetization axis along their growth axis. The effects of the realignment by the strong magnetic field on the properties of the slanted Fe nanorods were also investigated. This study provides a possible way to fabricate magnetic nanostructures for perpendicular recording applications.

Isomers and homologues of organic pollutants are hard to distinguish—especially in trace amounts—due to the similarities in their physical and chemical properties. We report here that by identifying the Raman characteristics of isomers of monochlorobiphenyls, these compounds can be recognized, even at trace levels, by using the surface-enhance Raman scattering method with silver nanorods as a substrate. When dissolved in acetone, 2-, 3-, and 4-chlorobiphenyls were detected at a concentration of 10⁻⁸ mol/L, at which their characteristic Raman peaks were visible. This study may provide a fast, simple, and sensitive method for the detection and recognition of organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls.

We have investigated the very initial deposition stages of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with ferrocene (Fe(C₅H₅)₂) and xylene (C₈H₁₀) for growing carbon nanotubes, and made clear that the mechanism for the self-organization behaviors of nanotubes at different growth stages by this approach. For instance, the organization of nanotubes into flower-like structures at prolonged deposition is developed from the crystal-like structures formed at early growth stages, both of which are closely related to and determined by the very initial deposition stages of this CVD approach. Based on this approach, ways have been established to build up different architectures of carbon nanotubes, by controlling the initial deposition stages of the CVD process, with which we have realized the selective growth of self-organized carbon nanotube structures. This study provides a new idea for growing carbon nanotube architectures by CVD.