Reduced reflection from roughened hyperbolic metamaterial

Abstract

We show that roughened surfaces of hyperbolic metamaterials scatter light preferentially inside the media, resulting in a very low reflectance. This phenomenon of fundamental importance, demonstrated experimentally in arrays of silver nanowires grown in alumina membranes, is consistent with a broad-band singularity in the density of photonic states. It paves the road to a variety of applications ranging from the stealth technology to high-efficiency solar cells and photodetectors.