Abstract
In this paper, we propose a new wireless transmission technique using Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) for hybrid RF/FSO communications. The signal is transmitted on two hops. The first hop uses Free Space Optical (FSO) communication while the second hop is based on Radio Frequency communications throughput RIS. The proposed RF/FSO communications using RIS offers 25-50 dB gain with respect to conventional RF/FSO. We derive the throughput at the packet level while previous studies analyze the symbol or bit error probabilities. The analysis is valid when RIS is used as transmitter or reflector.