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The transmittance of light into Si and GaAs through thin metal films has been calculated, both with and without anitreflection coatings. Reflection is the biggest optical loss for 100-Å-thick films, amounting to about 35% for the best metals. The transmittance can be increased from 60% to over 94% with the addition of AR coatings with indices of 2.1 or more. Ag, Cu, Au, and Mg are the most transparent films, while Al and Cr are the least transparent.
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H.J. Hovel (1976) studied this question.
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