Silver/silicon dioxide/silver sandwich films in the blue-to-red spectral regime with negative-real refractive index

Sandwich films comprising arrays of silver/silicon-dioxide/silver nanosandwiches were grown by the oblique angle deposition technique. For normally incident light, these films present a negative-real refractive index (NRRI) over almost the entire visible regime, with quite high transparency and figures of merit, regardless of the orientation of the incident electric field. A broad distribution of nanosandwich sizes is responsible for the breadth of the NRRI spectral regime. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3658624]