A new method for obtaining transparent electrodes

In this article, we propose a simple scheme to make a metallic film on a semi-infinite substrate optically transparent, thus obtaining a completely transparent electrode in a desired frequency range. By placing a composite layer consisting of dielectric and metallic stripes on top of the metallic one, we found that the back-scattering from the metallic film can be almost perfectly canceled by the composite layer under certain conditions, leading to transparency of the whole structure. We performed proof-of-concept experiments in the terahertz domain to verify our theoretical predictions, using carefully designed metamaterials to mimic plasmonic metals in optical regime. Experiments are in excellent agreement with full-wave simulations. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America