  Imparting and maintaining surface superhydrophobicity is receiving
significant research attention over the last several years, driven by a broad
range of important applications and enabled by advancements in materials and
surface nanoengineering. Researchers have investigated the effect of
temperature on droplet-surface interactions, which poses additional challenges
when liquid nucleation manifests itself, due to ensuing condensation into the
surface texture that compromises its anti-wetting behavior. Maintaining surface
transparency at the same time poses an additional and significant challenge.
Often, the solutions proposed are limited by working temperatures or are
detrimental to visibility through the surface. Here we introduce a scalable
method employing plasmonic photothermal metasurface composites, able to harvest
sunlight and naturally heat the surface, sustaining water repellency and
transparency under challenging environmental conditions where condensation and
fogging would otherwise be strongly promoted. We demonstrate that these
surfaces, when illuminated by sunlight, can prevent impalement of impacting
water droplets, even when the droplet to surface temperature difference is
50{\deg}C, by suppressing condensate formation within the texture, maintaining
transparency. We also show how the same transparent metasurface coating could
be combined and work collaboratively with hierarchical micro- and nanorough
textures, resulting in simultaneous superior pressure-driven impalement
resistance and avoidance of water nucleation and related possible frosting in
supercooled conditions. Our work can find a host of applications as a
sustainable solution against impacting water on surfaces such as windows,
eyewear, and optical components.
