Contactless electroreflectance spectroscopy with a semitransparent capacitor made of a silver mesh of ultrathin lines

•Printing of semitransparent electrodes for contactless electroreflectance (CER).•CER signal is linearly proportional to the applied voltage.•CER is inversely proportional to the distance between the electrode and the sample.•A dielectric spacer (borosilicate glass) enhances CER signal.•Proposing a phenomenological formula describing the intensity of the CER signal.