Tunneling mechanism of light transmission through metallic films

TL;DR

This paper proposes a tunneling mechanism for light transmission through metallic films involving resonating dielectric inclusions, demonstrating strong transmission peaks and potential for invisibility applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel tunneling-based explanation for light transmission in metallic films with dielectric inclusions, supported by experimental observations and theoretical analysis.

Findings

Strong transmission peaks near Mie resonances

Interaction and splitting of resonances due to interference

Transmission limited mainly by absorption

Abstract

A mechanism of light transmission through metallic films is proposed, assisted by tunnelling between resonating buried dielectric inclusions. This is illustrated by arrays of Si spheres embedded in Ag. Strong transmission peaks are observed near the Mie resonances of the spheres. The interaction among various planes of spheres and interference effects between these resonances and the surface plasmons of Ag lead to mixing and splitting of the resonances. Transmission is proved to be limited only by absorption. For small spheres, the effective dielectric constant can be tuned to values close to unity and a method is proposed to turn the resulting materials invisible.