Non-Newtonian flow effects during spin coating large-area optical coatings with colloidal suspensions

Multilayer sol-gel optical high reflectors with greater than 99% reflection have been prepared on substrates up to 20 cm in diameter by spin coating silica/alumina colloidal suspensions. These coatings are radially nonuniform, owing to the extensive shear-thinning rheology of the high-index alumina suspension. To a large degree the film thickness nonuniformity can be compensated for by the reflection bandwidth. The rheological properties of the alumina suspension under steady shear have been measured. The low-shear reduced viscosity and the shear-thinning time constant are shown to vary exponentially with q5’, where 4 is th e solids volume fraction. At #J = 0.1 the sol has effectively gelled. A model for spincoating with a non-Newtonian fluid has been developed that uses the Carreau rheology model to fit the measured viscometric data. Modeling and experimental results show that as long as these non-Newtonian effects are sufficiently large (as in this case) the radial film uniformity is determined only by these parameters and cannot be significantly influenced by spin rate, initial solids fraction, or any other parameters under the control of the operator. However, most of the film thickness variation occurs in the first l-2 cm from the substrate center, leaving the remainder almost uniform. Therefore the degree of nonuniformity does not appreciably increase with increasing substrate size.