Transparency and stability of Ag-based metal-dielectric multilayers

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. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America