Matte surfaces with broadband transparency enabled by highly asymmetric diffusion of white light

The long-standing paradox between matte appearance and transparency has deprived traditional matte materials of optical transparency. We present here a solution to this centuries-old optical conundrum by harnessing the potential of disordered optical metasurfaces. By constructing a random array of meta-atoms tailored to asymmetric backgrounds, we have created transparent matte surfaces that maintain clear transparency regardless of the strength of disordered light scattering or their matte appearances. This remarkable property originates in achieving highly asymmetric light diffusion, exhibiting substantial diffusion in reflection and negligible diffusion in transmission across the visible spectrum. By fabricating macroscopic samples of such metasurfaces through industrial lithography, we have experimentally demonstrated transparent windows camouflaged as traditional matte materials, as well as transparent displays with high clarity, full color, and one-way visibility. This work challenges the long-standing human intuition that matte materials cannot be transparent and opens new possibilities in many exciting display and windows applications requiring high clarity, full color, and one-way visibility.