Birefringence-induced polarization-independent and nearly all-angle transparency through a metallic film

¹ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Thin Films, Department of Physics, Soochow University - Suzhou 215006, China
² Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore 4 Engineering Drive 3, Singapore 117576, Singapore

^a leigao@suda.edu.cn
^b eleqc@nus.edu.sg

Received: 6 April 2011
Accepted: 15 June 2011

Abstract

We propose a birefringence route to perfect electromagnetic (EM) wave tunneling through a metallic film which relies on homogeneous birefringent coatings with moderate and positive parameters only. EM transparency is achieved in such a birefringent-metal-birefringent (BMB) structure for both polarizations and over nearly all incident angles. The stringent restrictions in conventional dielectric-metal-dielectric media, i.e., dielectrics with extremely negative permittivity, high magnetic field and polarization dependence (only for TE waves), are not required in our method. The criterion for perfect transmission is obtained by analyzing the effective medium theory and the EM fields of such a birefringent structure. The solutions hold for lossless and lossy cases in a quite large frequency range.