New Technique Developed for Cheap Anti-Glare, Anti-Reflective Glass

Soon, you may not have to tilt your smartphone or tablet to avoid glare while watching your favourite movie or video. Scientists has developed a novel glass surface that reduces both glare and reflection on mobile devices, a technology which may soon roll-out to the general public.

"Mobile or tablet users still have to dish out extra cash for a filter or film to lay on top of their glass screens so they can use the devices in bright light," said Valerio Pruneri at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona, Spain.

He developed this glass surface in collaboration with Prantik Mazumder's team at New York-based Corning Incorporated.

Pruneri and Mazumder roughened a glass surface so it could scatter light and ward off glare but without hurting the glass's transparency.

Then the researchers etched nano-size teeth into the surface to make it anti-reflective.

In addition to achieving both of these visual traits, they showed the textured surface repelled water, mimicking a lotus leaf.

"Although the anti-glare roughening protects the nano-size glass teeth, further research is needed to ensure that the surface can withstand heavy touchscreen use," they added.

The method is inexpensive and can easily be scaled up for industry use, concluded the study, published in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces.