Optical properties of metamaterial serpentine metal electrodes

We develop a model to describe the optical properties of periodic surpentine structures in the metamaterial regime. The structures are essentially transparent to infrared radiation and would be useful for transparent electrodes. The model predictions for the absorptance and the reflectance of the serpentine structures show a good agreement with numerical calculations of Maxwell’s equations. Our model reveals that the absorptance of the serpentine structures is determined by the self-inductance and the reflectance is affected by both the self-inductance and the effective conductivity. The effective conductivity is shown to be a dominant effect to reduce reflection.