Biomimetic silicon tip arrays for broadband antireflective and self-cleaning surfaces

In this paper, we report on the fabrication of biomimetic silicon tip arrays using metal catalytic wet etching silicon followed by a short time reactive ion etching (RIE) process. Silicon post arrays with different space and length can be prepared by 2D colloidal crystal assisted metal catalytic wet etching. After that, silicon tip arrays with different space and length can be prepared using RIE on the basis of silicon post arrays. The silicon tip arrays exhibit high performance antireflective and self-cleaning properties.