Transparency and stability of Ag-based metal–dielectric multilayers

Abstract

We fabricated and tested periodic metal (Ag)-dielectric (SiO2 or TiO2) multilayers with transparency bands in the visible range. For samples with Ag-TiO2 interfaces, the optical properties exhibited relatively poor predictability, likely due to oxidation of the Ag layers. Ag/SiO2-based multilayers were found to be more predictable and stable, but the relatively low refractive index of SiO2 limits their inherent transparency and pass-band bandwidth. We show that termination of the multilayer with a single high-index layer reduces the admittance mismatch with the ambient media, and thus improves the properties of the transparency band.

Tunable Near-Infrared Transparent Bands Based on Cascaded Fabry–Perot Cavities Containing Phase Change Materials

“…By cascading four Fabry-Perot cavities, we achieve a near-infrared transparent band. Compared with the reported transparent bands based on cascaded Fabry-Perot cavities [29][30][31][32][33][34], the transmittance of the transparent band in this work is higher.…”

“…In addition, the maximum transmittances of the transparent bands in Refs. [29][30][31][32][33][34] are lower than 0.8. Owing to the coupling between the Fabry-Perot modes, a transmittance peak will split into several…”

“…These cascaded Fabry-Perot cavities are also called one-dimensional metal-dielectric photonic crystals [29,30]. To date, transparent bands at visible wavelengths have been confirmed by various cascaded Fabry-Perot cavities [29][30][31][32][33][34]. In Refs.…”

“…In Refs. [29][30][31][32][33][34], researchers did not discuss the formation of the transparent bands from the perspective of the mode coupling. The transparent bands originate from the coupling between the Fabry-Perot modes.…”

Fabrication of highly efficient resonant structure assisted ultrathin artificially stacked Ag/ZnS/Ag multilayer films for color filter applications

“…These are also known for the transparent metallic structure due to their highly transmissive window within a visible range of electromagnetic wavelength spectra. 9,10 Additionally, highly transparent metallic structures have attractive potential applications as optical filters with high out-of-band rejection, 5,6,11,12 thin film metal electrodes in organic light emitting diodes, 13 nonlinear photonics, 14 electromagnetic shielding, 15 plasmonic nanoresonators mediated spectral imaging, [16][17][18] waveguides 19 and cavity induced optical filters. 20 These films are of great interest because (i) metal is very efficient to reflect light at infrared wavelengths and beyond and (ii) at the same time, it is possible to make fairly efficient band pass filters with a minimum band width, despite the high imaginary part of refractive index of metals 9,10 and provide a large index contrast to low-absorptive dielectrics.…”