Robust Optical Transparency of a Continuous Metal Film Sandwiched by Plasmonic Crystals

Light opacity is a natural phenomenon of a continuous metal film. In various applications, such as transparent electrodes in solar cells or touching screens in ultrathin displayers, low transmittance is a major issue. Here, we present a new concept that enhances the transmission of light through a continuous metal film to reach the transmittance of glass. In order to cancel the potential electron scattering when electrons propagate in the metal film, it is sandwiched between two photonic crystal (PC) layers made of nontouching metallic particles. This geometry shows a robust, near-unity, optical transparency behavior that could be highly tuned by changing the geometrical parameters of the structure. These findings suggest potential applications in ultraintegrated optoelectronics based still benefiting from both electric and mechanical properties metals offer while still achieving optical transparency through plasmon coupling effects.