Tunneling Mechanism of Light Transmission Through Metallic Films

A mechanism of light transmission through metallic films is proposed, assisted by tunneling 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 of the resulting material can be tuned to values close to unity, and a method is proposed to turn the resulting materials invisible.