The present invention relates to a porous film, an optical element, an optical system, an interchangeable lens, an optical device, and a porous film-manufacturing method.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. H8-122501 discloses a low refractive index antireflection film having a refractive index of 1.28 to 1.38. Such a low antireflection film is required to have a low refractive index and also have excellent environmental tolerance.
According to a first aspect, a porous film is a porous film having a silica particle, wherein a refractive index is 1.1 to 1.25, and a contact angle with respect to water is equal to or more than 40°.
According to a second aspect, a porous film is a porous film having a silica particle, wherein a refractive index is 1.1 to 1.25, and a surface of the porous film has a trimethylsilyl group.
According to a third aspect, a porous film is a porous film having a silica particle, wherein a refractive index is 1.1 to 1.25, and a surface of the porous film is treated with a silane coupling agent.
According to a fourth aspect, a porous film-manufacturing method includes: a step of mixing a solvent that includes a tertiary amine, water, and a methoxypropanol (PGME) with a silicon compound and preparing a mixed solution; a step of agitating the mixed solution; a step of applying the mixed solution after agitation on a substrate and forming a coating film; and a step of heating the coating film and forming a porous film.
—Embodiments—a porous film according to an embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. The porous film according to the present embodiment is a porous film that is constituted of silica particles (SiO2 particles), that has a low refractive index, and that has excellent environmental tolerance.
The porous film of the present embodiment is constituted of a gel network of silica particles and includes a structure having a large number of pores of a several nanometers in size in the film. The refractive index of the porous film of the present embodiment is in a range of 1.1 to 1.25 and can be more preferably in a range of 1.17 to 1.23. The refractive index in the present description means a refractive index with respect to light having a wavelength of 550 nm. In the porous film of the present embodiment, a contact angle with respect to water is equal to or more than 40° and can be more preferably equal to or more than 45°. In order to realize this contact angle, a surface of the porous film has a trimethylsilyl group. Further, in the porous film of the present embodiment, the scattering at a wavelength of 350 nm is equal to or less than 1000 ppm and can be more preferably equal to or less than 900 ppm.
Hereinafter, a method for manufacturing the above porous film is described.
By hydrolyzing and performing dehydrating condensation on the silicon compound under a base catalyst, porous particles of the present embodiment are formed. A tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMOS) is used as the silicon compound. The tetramethyl orthosilicate is added to a solvent that contains a tertiary amine, water, and a methoxypropanol (PGME) and is agitated. For example, a triethylamine can be used as the tertiary amine. A predetermined amount of nitric acid may be added to the solvent in a container in order to prolong the lifetime of the solution. The agitation is performed at about room temperature. When the temperature at this time is too high, the reaction speed is too fast, and it is difficult to control the refractive index of the porous film that is eventually formed. Conversely, when the temperature is too low, the reaction speed is too slow, and the porous film that is eventually formed becomes brittle. Accordingly, the temperature during agitation can be preferably 15 to 30° C. and can be further preferably 20 to 25° C. Further, the agitation time at this time is also a condition that affects the refractive index of the formed porous film. The agitation time is suitably set in accordance with the desired refractive index and can be, for example, in a range of 12 to 100 hours. As the agitation time increases, the refractive index of the porous film becomes lower. By the agitation, the tetramethyl orthosilicate is hydrolyzed as follows, and silica particles are formed in the solution.
Si(OMe)4+2H2O→SiO2+4MeOH
The solution after the agitation is applied on a substrate, and a coating film is formed by a film formation process. The film formation process is performed by using, for example, a spin coater. By appropriately setting a condition that is set when the spin coater is used, the film thickness of the coating film can be an arbitrary thickness. In the formed coating film, silica particles are connected together, and a gel network is formed. The coating is heated and is hardened. As a heating condition at this time, the heating temperature can be in a range of 140 to 180° C., and the heating time can be in a range of 1 to 5 hours. Specifically, the heating temperature can be, for example, 160° C., and the heating time can be, for example, 3 hours. Since the porous film that is eventually formed becomes brittle when the heating time is too long, temperature management is important. The gel network is dehydrated and condensed by the heating process, and a porous film having a large number of holes of several nanometers in size is formed. After the heating, the coating film is left to stand at room temperature for a predetermined period of time to be thereby cooled, and the formation of the porous film is completed.
A large amount of OH groups are present on the surface of the porous film formed as described above. Since the OH groups on the surface of the porous film are condensed with each other in a high-temperature, high-humidity environment and become a cause for changing the refractive index of the porous film or changing the film thickness, the porous film in a state where a large amount of OH groups are present becomes a film having poor environmental tolerance. Accordingly, in the present embodiment, the surface of the porous film is treated with a silane coupling agent, and the amount of OH groups is reduced. The silane coupling agent treatment is performed using hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS). The silane coupling agent treatment may employ any of a gas phase treatment, a liquid phase treatment, and a mist treatment. When the gas phase treatment is performed, a substrate on which a porous film is formed is left to stand at room temperature for a predetermined period of time in an environment (in a sealed container) where the hexamethyldisilazane is vaporized. Then, heating is performed at a predetermined temperature for a predetermined period of time. When the liquid phase treatment is performed, a substrate on which a porous film is formed is immersed in a solution of hexamethyldisilazane, is left in a state where ultrasonic vibration is applied for a predetermined period of time, and is then heated at a predetermined temperature for a predetermined period of time. When the mist treatment is performed, a substrate on which a porous film is formed is placed in a container, and hexamethyldisilazane in a mist state is filled into the container. After a predetermined period of time elapses, the substrate is removed from the container, is washed, and is then heated at a predetermined temperature for a predetermined period of time.
By the silane coupling agent treatment described above, the OH group on the surface of the porous film is joined (coupled) to the trimethylsilyl group of the silane coupling agent. That is, the trimethylsilyl group is formed on the surface of the porous film. As a result, in the porous film, a contact angle with respect to water becomes relatively larger than that before the silane coupling agent treatment and becomes a value described above. That is, since the amount of OH groups on the surface of the porous film is reduced by the silane coupling agent treatment, and the refractive index change or the film thickness change of the porous film that originates from the OH groups in the high-temperature, high-humidity environment is prevented, the porous film has high environmental tolerance.
The manufacturing method of the above-described porous film is described using a flowchart shown in
In Step S1, the tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMOS) is added to a solvent that contains a tertiary amine, water, and methoxypropanol (PGME) and is agitated at room temperature (agitation process), and the process proceeds to Step S2. The time (reaction time) of agitation is determined based on a required refractive index of the porous film to be manufactured.
In Step S2, a film formation process is performed in which a solution after agitation is applied on a substrate fixed on a rotation table of a spin coater, then the rotation table is rotated, and a coating film is formed, and the process proceeds to Step S3. In Step S3, the formed coating film is heated, for example, at a heating temperature of 160° C. for a heating time of 3 hours and is hardened (heating hardening process), a porous film is formed, and the process proceeds to Step S4. In Step S4, the surface of the porous film is treated with a silane coupling agent, and the amount of OH groups on the surface of the porous film is reduced. The silane coupling agent treatment is performed using hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) by any of the gas phase treatment, the liquid phase treatment, and the mist treatment. In this way, the porous film according to the present embodiment is obtained.
The porous film obtained in this way can be suitably used as an antireflection film. The antireflection film may be a single layer film or may be a multilayer film. When the antireflection film is a multilayer film, it is known that when the refractive index of the used film material is larger, or by using a low refractive index film for the outermost layer, the optical performance is improved, or the number of multilayer films is reduced even at the same optical performance. In particular, it has been clarified by simulation that by using a low refractive index film having a refractive index of 1.30 or less only for the outermost layer, the optical performance can be extremely enhanced. Since the porous film of the present embodiment has a low refractive index of 1.1 to 1.25, the porous film can be suitably used as a configuration of the antireflection film and can be suitably used particularly as the outermost layer of the multilayer film that constitutes the antireflection film. The outermost layer means a layer that is the most distant from a base material of the multilayer film.
An optical element that includes the antireflection film described above can be suitably used, for example, as a lens or the like. An optical system that includes such a lens includes, for example, an objective lens, a collecting lens, an imaging lens, an interchangeable lens for a camera, and the like. These can be used for an imaging device such as a lens interchangeable camera or a lens non-interchangeable camera or an optical device such as a microscope. The optical device is not limited to the imaging device or the microscope described above and also includes a video camera, a teleconverter, a telescope, a binocular, a monocular viewer, a laser distance meter, a projector, and the like. An example of the imaging device is described below.
In the imaging device CAM, when a power button (not shown) is pressed, a shutter (not shown) of an imaging lens WL is opened, light from a photographic subject (object) is collected by the imaging lens WL, and an image is imaged on an imaging element disposed on an image surface. The subject image imaged on the imaging element is displayed on a LCD monitor LM arranged on a rear portion of the imaging device CAM. After a photographer determines a composition of a subject image while viewing the LCD monitor LM, a release button B1 is pressed, the subject image is captured by the imaging element and is recorded and stored in a memory (not shown). An auxiliary light-emitting unit EF that emits auxiliary light when the subject image is dark, a function button B2 that is used for various condition settings or the like of the imaging device CAM, and the like are arranged on the imaging device CAM.
A higher antireflection performance is required for the optical systems used in the camera or the like. In order to achieve this, it is effective to use the porous film according to the present embodiment as the antireflection film.
An example of the porous film according to the above embodiment is described.
In the present example, the porous film is formed by the following procedure. 1-Methoxy-2-propanol (PGME) (Fujifilm Wako Pure Chemical) of 54.43 g is placed in a resin bottle. Next, triethylamine (Tokyo Chemical) of 36.1 μL and pure water of 1.731 mL are each measured using a micropipette, are added to the resin bottle, and are agitated by rotating a magnetic stirrer at a rotation speed of 600 rpm for 5 minutes, and a base solvent is formed.
Tetramethyl orthosilicate (TMOS) (Tokyo Kasei) of 7.31 g is added to the base solvent described above and is agitated at room temperature for a predetermined period of time. Further, 1-methoxy-2-propanol (PGME) of 27.2 g is added to dilute such that a content ratio of the PGME is 70 wt %, and a coating solution is obtained. When nitric acid is added in order to prolong the lifetime of the coating solution, nitric acid (1.42) (Fujifilm Wako Pure Chemical) of 11 μL of may be added dropwise. The coating solution is contained in a syringe and is added dropwise onto a substrate through a syringe filter having a mesh of 5.0 μm. The substrate on which the coating solution is added dropwise is fixed to a rotation table of the spin coater, the rotation table is accelerated to 3000 rpm in 5 seconds, and the rotation is held in that state for 30 seconds, is then decelerated in 5 seconds, and is stopped. A rotation control of the rotation table is performed according to a preset program. The coating film formed on the substrate by the spin coater is heated using an oven under a condition of a heating temperature of 160° C. and a heating time of 3 hours. After the heating, the coating film is left to stand at room temperature for 24 hours. By the above procedure, a porous film is formed on the substrate. This state is called a test piece in the following description.
A silane coupling agent treatment is performed on the porous film of the test piece. As described above, a method of performing the silane coupling agent treatment includes the gas phase treatment, the liquid phase treatment, and the mist treatment. The process conditions are described below.
<Gas phase Treatment>
A test piece and hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) (Tokyo Chemical) of 0.614 μL are placed in a sealed container having a volume of about 1 L and are left to stand at room temperature for 24 hours. Then, the test piece that is removed from the sealed container is heated at a heating temperature of 60° C. for a heating time of 30 minutes.
Hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) is diluted with methanol to 30 wt %, and a HMDS diluted solution is prepared. The test piece is immersed in the HMDS diluted solution and is treated for 20 minutes by applying ultrasonic waves. The test piece after the treatment is washed by ultrasonic cleaning in the methanol for 1 minute and is then heated at a heating temperature of 60° C. for a heating time of 30 minutes.
The test piece is heated at a heating temperature of 70° C. for a heating time of 30 minutes. After the heat treatment, the test piece is placed in a container, and a mist of hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) is filled in the container using a nebulizer. After generating the mist by the nebulizer for 5 minutes and then allowing 5 minutes to elapse in a state where the generation of the mist is stopped, the test piece is removed from the container. The removed test piece is heated at a heating temperature of 70° C. for a heating time of 30 minutes. The test piece after the heat treatment is immersed in methanol and is ultrasonically washed for 2 minutes. Then, the test piece is washed with pure water and is then heated at a heating temperature of 70° C. for a heating time of 30 minutes.
As shown in
The presence or absence of the trimethylsilyl group on the surface of the porous film can be determined by an IR (infrared absorption spectroscopy) measurement. That is, the presence of the trimethylsilyl group can be confirmed when, in the IR measurement, absorption near 1259 cm−1 due to a Si—C bond specifically included in the trimethylsilyl group is observed.
According to the above-described embodiment, the following effects are obtained. (1) The porous film has silica particles wherein the refractive index is 1.1 to 1.25, and the contact angle with respect to water is equal to or more than 40°. Thereby, the porous film has a low refractive index and a high environmental tolerance and therefore can be used for applications such as a thin film of an optical member.
(2) The silane coupling agent treatment is applied to the OH group on the surface, and the porous film has the trimethylsilyl group. Thereby, the contact angle of the porous film is increased. That is, since the OH group amount on the surface of the porous film is reduced, it is possible to prevent the refractive index change or the film thickness change of the porous film that originates from the OH group in the high-temperature, high-humidity environment.
(3) In the porous film, the scattering at a wavelength of 350 nm is smaller than 1000 ppm. Thereby, the porous film is a low scattering film and therefore can be used for applications such as an antireflection film of an optical member.
(4) A mixed solution is prepared by mixing a solvent that includes a tertiary amine, water, and methoxypropanol (PGME) with a silicon compound, the mixed solution is agitated, a coating film is formed by applying the mixed solution after agitation on a substrate, and a porous film is formed by heating the coating film. Thereby, by a simple process, it is possible to manufacture a porous film having a low refractive index safely without using hydrofluoric acid or the like.
Unless the features of the present invention are impaired, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and other aspects that may be considered within the scope of the technical ideas of the present invention are also included within the scope of the present invention.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2019-063714 | Mar 2019 | JP | national |
This is a Continuation Application of International Application No. PCT/JP2020/014100, filed on Mar. 27, 2020, which claims priority on Japanese Patent Application No. 2019-063714, filed on Mar. 28, 2019. The contents of the aforementioned applications are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/JP2020/014100 | Mar 2020 | US |
Child | 17483541 | US |