Effect of self-assembled monolayer and aluminum oxide ALD film on a PMMA substrate

The antireflective (AR) coated poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) substrate was deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) to improve hydrophobicity and mechano-chemical properties of organic thin films. The water contact angles (WCA) were tested to characterize the surface wettability of SAM octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) films. Results showed that a contact angle of $105.9^{\circ}$ was obtained for the SAM films with an annealing process, and the highest WCA of $120^{\circ}$ was achieved for the films prepared by the SAM and ALD multi-process. The surface morphology of the SAM films with different assembly times and varying number of ALD cycles was obtained by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The maximum light transmittance for the SAM films on the PMMA substrate reached 99.9% at a wavelength of 450 nm. It was found that the SAM surfaces were not affected at all by the ALD process.