Angle- and Polarization-Insensitive Metamaterial Absorber using Via Array

Foldable Metamaterial Absorber with Liquid Metal Printing on Paper

Metamaterials, characterized by their unique artificial periodic structures, exhibit extraordinary abilities in controlling electromagnetic waves not found in natural materials. Metamaterial absorbers, for example, have been developed by patterning solid conductive materials on dielectric surfaces. However, the foldability limitations of solid conductors make them unsuitable as foldable metamaterial absorbers since they lose those desirable properties when folded. To address this challenge, various methods using liquid metals have emerged, but they either require often necessitate structural frames or are primarily suited for hard surfaces, limiting their foldability potential. This study proposes an innovative solution involving the deposition of liquid metal onto paper surfaces to overcome foldability constraints. We design a metamaterial absorber with a circular pattern using three sheets of printing paper bonded with a film, leveraging these adhesive properties of oxidized gallium-based liquid metal to waterproof agent coated printing paper while preventing adhesion to laser-printed toner surfaces. The experimental results show that this absorber achieves an absorption rate of more than 90% in the frequency range of 10.36-10.76 GHz while being insensitive to polarization and incidence angle. Surprisingly, our proposed absorber retains its excellent performance even after being folded and unfolded up to 50 times. This foldable metamaterial absorber made of liquid metal is a promising solution for electromagnetic wave management applications requiring flexibility and adaptability.

Rapid customized design of a conformal optical transparent metamaterial absorber based on the circuit analog optimization method

In this paper, a conformal optical transparent metamaterial absorber (COTMA) is proposed based on the circuit analog optimization method (CAOM), which can effectively enhance the optimization speed in the metamaterial absorber structure design by quantifying the equivalent circuit parameters. The operating frequency band can be customized at any band through CAOM, such as microwave, terahertz, and near-infrared frequencies. Here, a five-square-patch structure absorber with transparency and flexible properties is achieved. The simulated and measured incident electromagnetic (EM) wave absorptions of COTMA can reach above 90% in 15.77 - 38.69 GHz band. Meanwhile, COTMA exhibits excellent conformal EM absorption, a thinner substrate (0.078 wavelength at 15.77 GHz), lower structure complexity and polarization independence, and it can also be adapted to the EM absorption of different curved screens. This design is expected to have potential applications for wearable electronics, curved surface screens and OLED displays.

Enhanced broadband absorption with a twisted multilayer metal-dielectric stacking metamaterial

This study proposes and experimentally demonstrates enhanced broadband absorption with twisted multilayer metal-dielectric stacking. Compared with the traditional metal-dielectric pyramid, the resonance frequencies of the third-order magnetic resonances in the twisted quadrangular frustum redshifted obviously. Hence, the proposed structure enables an ultra-broadband absorption by combining the third-order magnetic resonances with the fundamental mode. The broadband absorption is insensitive to the incident wave polarization, whereas the twisted angle of the stacking plays an important role in deciding the absorption bandwidth. The sample was fabricated via the multi-material hybrid micro-droplet jetting modeling (MHMJM) technology to verify the enhanced absorbing performance. The measured results suggest that the proposed strategy provides a potential path to realize broadband electromagnetic wave absorption. Moreover, it is possible to extend the twisted metamaterial to the terahertz and infrared frequencies using the advanced nano fabrication techniques.

All-Metal Terahertz Metamaterial Absorber and Refractive Index Sensing Performance

This paper presents a terahertz (THz) metamaterial absorber made of stainless steel. We found that the absorption rate of electromagnetic waves reached 99.95% at 1.563 THz. Later, we analyzed the effect of structural parameter changes on absorption. Finally, we explored the application of the absorber in refractive index sensing. We numerically demonstrated that when the refractive index (n) is changing from 1 to 1.05, our absorber can yield a sensitivity of 74.18 μm/refractive index unit (RIU), and the quality factor (Q-factor) of this sensor is 36.35. Compared with metal–dielectric–metal sandwiched structure, the absorber designed in this paper is made of stainless steel materials with no sandwiched structure, which greatly simplifies the manufacturing process and reduces costs.

Planar Dual Polarized Metasurface Array for Microwave Energy Harvesting

The design of a dual polarized metasurface collector based on the metamaterial full absorption concept for electromagnetic energy harvesting is introduced. Unlike previous metamaterial absorber designs, here the power absorbed is mostly dissipated across a resistive load rather than within the dielectric substrate. This is achieved by channeling the absorbed power to an optimal resistive load through a via hole. The simulation results show that a power absorption efficiency of 98% is achieved at an operating frequency of 2 GHz for a single unit cell. A super unit cell consisting of four cells with alternating vias was also designed to produce a dual polarized metasurface. The simulation results yielded a radiation to AC efficiency of around 98% for each polarization.

An Ultrathin, Triple-Band Metamaterial Absorber with Wide-Incident-Angle Stability for Conformal Applications at X and Ku Frequency Band

An ultrathin and flexible metamaterial absorber (MA) with triple absorption peaks is presented in this paper. The proposed absorber has been designed in such a way that three absorption peaks are located at 8.5, 13.5, and 17 GHz (X and Ku bands) with absorption of 99.9%, 99.5%, and 99.9%, respectively. The proposed structure is only 0.4 mm thick, which is approximately 1/88, 1/55, and 1/44 for the respective free space wavelengths of absorption frequency in various bands. The MA is also insensitive due to its symmetric geometry. In addition, the proposed structure exhibits minimum 86% absorption (TE incidence) within 60° angle of incidence. For TM incidence, the proposed absorber exhibits more than 99% absorptivity up to 60° incidence. Surface current and electric field distributions were investigated to analyze the mechanism governing absorption. Parameter analyses were performed for absorption optimization. Moreover, the performance of the MA was experimentally demonstrated in free space on a sample under test with 20 × 30 unit cells fabricated on a flexible dielectric. Under normal incidence, the fabricated MA exhibits near perfect absorption at each absorption peak for all polarization angles, and the experimental results were found to be consistent with simulation results. Due to its advantages of high-efficiency absorption over a broad range of incidence angles, the proposed absorber can be used in energy harvesting and electromagnetic shielding.

Wide-angle metamaterial absorber with highly insensitive absorption for TE and TM modes

Being incident and polarization angle insensitive are crucial characteristics of metamaterial perfect absorbers due to the variety of incident signals. In the case of incident angles insensitivity, facing transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) waves affect the absorption ratio significantly. In this scientific report, a crescent shape resonator has been introduced that provides over 99% absorption ratio for all polarization angles, as well as 70% and 93% efficiencies for different incident angles up to \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\theta =80^{\circ }$$\end{document}θ=80∘ for TE and TM polarized waves, respectively. Moreover, the insensitivity for TE and TM modes can be adjusted due to the semi-symmetric structure. By adjusting the structure parameters, the absorption ratio for TE and TM waves at \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$\theta =80^{\circ }$$\end{document}θ=80∘ has been increased to 83% and 97%, respectively. This structure has been designed to operate at 5 GHz spectrum to absorb undesired signals generated due to the growing adoption of Wi-Fi networks. Finally, the proposed absorber has been fabricated in a \documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$$20 \times 20$$\end{document}20×20 array structure on FR-4 substrate. Strong correlation between measurement and simulation results validates the design procedure.

A theoretical investigation on reciprocity-inspired wide-angle spectrally-selective THz absorbers augmented by anisotropic metamaterials

In this paper, a theoretical framework relying on the reciprocity theorem is proposed to accurately design a spectrally-selective THz superstrate-loaded metamaterial absorber (SLMA) exhibiting wide-angle feature. By leveraging high-order Floquet harmonics in a generalized transmission line model characterizing the conventional metamaterial absorbers (MAs), it is demonstrated that MAs suffer from impedance mismatch, especially at near grazing angles. From an impedance matching viewpoint, this major challenge is tackled in this paper via two different designs, exploiting a magneto-electric anisotropic Huygens' metamaterial and a multilayer dielectric structure at a certain distance over the MA plane. The numerical results corroborate well the theoretical predictions, elucidating that the proposed SLMA significantly broadens the angular performance of the MA up to near grazing angles (about 80°), where high absorptivity is still achieved in both principal planes. The deteriorating effect of diffraction modes has been comprehensively analyzed. In comparison to the previous wide-angle MA reports based on intricate particle geometries and brute-force optimizations, the proposed design features a straightforward semi-analytical algorithm, which can also be re-developed for microwave, mid-infrared, and optical frequency bands and for any type of MA element. The proposed SLMA would be very promising for various wavelength-selective applications such as sensors and imaging.

Trapping waves with tunable prism-coupling terahertz metasurfaces absorber

We experimentally demonstrated a corrugated metallic metasurface based tunable perfect absorber for terahertz (THz) frequencies in a total internal reflection geometry. The absorbance is strongly depend on the central layer of this three-layer absorber, which provides a feasible approach to tune the absorption. In particular, there exist an optimal gap that enables a perfect absorption at specific frequency. Due to the simple 1D geometric structure of metasurface, its absorption frequency can be easily tailored over a wide frequency range (0.625-1.499 THz). More importantly, the modulation of the effective refractive index and loss of medium environment can be accepted as an alternative approach for the absorption properties modulation. This prism coupling absorber provides a new route for modulation of the absorption characteristics with potential applications in biological sensing.

Polarization Insensitive, Wide-Angle, Ultra-wideband, Flexible, Resistively Loaded, Electromagnetic Metamaterial Absorber using Conventional Inkjet-Printing Technology

A novel, polarization insensitive, wide-angle and broadband electromagnetic metamaterial absorber, which can cover either a flat or a bent geometry, is presented in this work. The periodic geometry has a unit-cell, which consists of four split ring resonators, which are sequentially rotated around the unit-cell axis progressively by 90 deg. First, the metallic parts of the geometry consists of low resistivity copper traces. Next, in order to increase the frequency bandwidth, resistively loaded traces, printed by conventional inkjet printer are used to replace the copper ones. For normal incidence, simulated and measurement results shown that the proposed flat absorber exhibits absorption efficiency higher than 0.8 for 6.9-29.9 GHz (i.e., bandwidth of 125%) regardless of polarization, while the curved absorber for 6.6-29 GHz (i.e., bandwidth of 126%) or for 10.5-29.6 GHz (i.e., bandwidth of 95%), depending the polarization. For oblique incidence and for TE or TM polarized incident wave it presents bandwidth of 118% (7.7-29.9 GHz) or 100.5% (9.9-29.9 GHz), respectively, for an incident angular range of 0-45 deg. Finally, the proposed absorber has thickness of 3.89 mm, corresponding to λ/11.7 at its lowest operation frequency.

Realization of Bidirectional, Bandwidth-Enhanced Metamaterial Absorber for Microwave Applications

The ever-increasing interest towards metamaterial absorbers owes to its remarkable features such as ultra-thin nature and design flexibility. Subduing the inherent narrow bandwidth of such absorbers is the prime goal in metamaterial absorber research, as this can widen the applications areas. A greater challenge is to construct bidirectional absorber, which provides direction-insensitive absorption, as most of the existing designs exhibit single sided absorption due to the complete metal film used in the design. This work presents the realization of a bidirectional, bandwidth-enhanced metamaterial absorber with basic elements such as strips and squares optimized to have adjacent resonances leading to a bandwidth-enhanced absorption. The structural evolution of the constituent metallic components towards the formation of bandwidth-enhanced absorption is described. The bidirectional absorber exhibits more than 90% absorption between 13.40 GHz and 14.25 GHz from the two incident directions. The mechanism of absorption is studied with the surface current analysis and the effective parameters of the structure. The choice of the metallic components with four-fold rotation symmetry renders the proposed design to be polarization independent and wide-angle receptive. The numerical studies are verified experimentally at microwave frequencies, which shows a good agreement between them.

Meta-Dome for Broadband Radar Absorbing Structure

This study focused on the radome and proposed an absorber with a meta-dome structure for ultra-wideband radar absorption using an FR-4 dielectric material on the metasurface absorber for protection. In addition to protecting the absorber, the metasurface absorber exhibited ultra-wideband frequency absorptivity from radar signals, with an absorptivity band from 4.6-12 GHz, including the C and X frequency bands of radar signals. A wide incidence angle should also be considered in addition to the absorption frequency band. Experimental results were obtained for all polarization angles at normal incidence for 5-14 GHz. Sensitivity to incident angle from 0° to 40° in the transverse electric mode and 0° to 60° in the transverse magnetic mode were observed. The proposed concept was demonstrated using full-wave simulation and experimental measurements.

Ultra-Wideband and Wide-Angle Microwave Metamaterial Absorber

In order to extend the performance of radar absorbing materials, it is necessary to design new structures with wideband properties and large angles of incidence which are also as thin as possible. The objective of this work, realized within the framework of the SAFAS project (self-complementary surface with low signature) is, then, the development of an ultra-wideband microwave absorber of low thickness. The design of such material requires a multilayered structure composed with dielectric layers, metasurfaces, and wide-angle impedance matching layers. This solution has been realized with on-the-shelf materials, and measured to validate the concept. At normal incidence, the bandwidth ratio, defined for a magnitude of the reflection coefficient below -10 dB, is 4.7:1 for an absorber with a total thickness of 11.5 mm, which corresponds to λ/7 at the lowest operating frequency. For an incidence of 60°, this bandwidth ratio is reduced to 3.8:1, but the device remains ultra-wideband.

Fluidically Switchable Metasurface for Wide Spectrum Absorption

Metasurfaces, owing to their attractive features, provide a wide range of potential applications. Electromagnetic absorbers based on metasurfaces have significantly improved responses compared to the earlier absorbers made from composite materials. Active metasurfaces, in contrast to the passive designs, can exhibit multifunctional characteristics without repeated fabrication. This paper presents a fluidically-reconfigurable active metasurface that provides switchable wide spectrum absorption. The proposed design is comprised of liquid-metal-encased dielectric substrates, sandwiched between the top resistive pattern and bottom ground plane. With precise control of the liquid metal flow, the structure can exhibit wide absorption bandwidth switching between two frequency regimes. Further, the proposed metasurface has a significant advantage of displaying polarization-insensitive behaviour, unlike the previous fluidically-reconfigured structures. The design has been investigated by illustrating surface current distributions and several parametric variations. Finally, the proposed structure was fabricated using laser etching, and experimentally validated. This work has paved the way towards the realization of reconfigurable metasurfaces with multifunctional characteristics, thus showing great potential in microfluidic technology for diverse applications.

Design of Metamaterial Absorber using Eight-Resistive-Arm Cell for Simultaneous Broadband and Wide-Incidence-Angle Absorption

In this paper, a broadband metamaterial (MM) absorber is presented for X-band applications. A novel eight-resistive-arm (ERA) cell is proposed as an MM unit cell to achieve both broadband absorption and wide incidence angles. The proposed ERA cell is designed using equivalent circuit model and full-wave analysis in order to achieve an absorption ratio higher than 90% in the range of 8.2–13.4 GHz. The experimental results indicate that the absorptivity was greater than 90% in the range of 8–13 GHz for all polarization angles under normal incidence. Under oblique incidence, the measured absorptivity was greater than 90% in the range of 8.2–12.2 GHz up to 60° and in the range of 9.2–12 GHz up to 65° in the transverse electric (TE) mode. In the transverse magnetic (TM) mode, the measured absorptivity was higher than 90% in the range of 9.5–12.4 GHz when the incidence angle was varied from 0° to 60° and remaining a 90% absorption bandwidth in the range of 10–12 GHz up to 65°. Compared to other broadband MM absorbers, the proposed MM absorber exhibited the widest incidence angles in both TE and TM modes.

Review of Recent Metamaterial Microfluidic Sensors

Metamaterial elements/arrays exhibit a sensitive response to fluids yet with a small footprint, therefore, they have been an attractive choice to realize various sensing devices when integrated with microfluidic technology. Micro-channels made from inexpensive biocompatible materials avoid any contamination from environment and require only microliter-nanoliter sample for sensing. Simple design, easy fabrication process, light weight prototype, and instant measurements are advantages as compared to conventional (optical, electrochemical and biological) sensing systems. Inkjet-printed flexible sensors find their utilization in rapidly growing wearable electronics and health-monitoring flexible devices. Adequate sensitivity and repeatability of these low profile microfluidic sensors make them a potential candidate for point-of-care testing which novice patients can use reliably. Aside from degraded sensitivity and lack of selectivity in all practical microwave chemical sensors, they require an instrument, such as vector network analyzer for measurements and not readily available as a self-sustained portable sensor. This review article presents state-of-the-art metamaterial inspired microfluidic bio/chemical sensors (passive devices ranging from gigahertz to terahertz range) with an emphasis on metamaterial sensing circuit and microfluidic detection. We also highlight challenges and strategies to cope these issues which set future directions.

Bandwidth-enhanced and Wide-angle-of-incidence Metamaterial Absorber using a Hybrid Unit Cell

In this paper, a bandwidth-enhanced and wide-angle-of-incidence metamaterial absorber is proposed using a hybrid unit cell. Owing to symmetric unit cells, high absorptivity is maintained for all polarization angles. A circular-sector unit cell enables high absorptivity under the oblique incidence of both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes. To enhance the bandwidth, we introduced a hybrid unit cell comprising four circular sectors. Two sectors resonate at 10.38 GHz, and two resonate at 10.55 GHz. Since the two absorption frequencies are near each other, the bandwidth increases. The proposed idea is demonstrated with both full-wave simulations and measurements. The simulated absorptivity exceeds 91% around 10.45 GHz at an angle of incidence up to 70° in both TM and TE polarizations. The measured absorptivity at 10.45 GHz is close to 96.5% for all polarization angles under normal incidence. As the angle of incidence changes from 0° to 70°, the measured absorptivity at 10.45 GHz remains above 90% in the TE mode and higher than 94% in the TM mode. Under an oblique incidence, the measured 90% absorption bandwidth is 1.95% from 10.1-10.2 GHz and 10.4-10.5 GHz up to 70° at the TE mode, and 3.39% from 10.15-10.5 GHz up to 70° at the TM mode.

Wide Incidence Angle-Insensitive Metamaterial Absorber for Both TE and TM Polarization using Eight-Circular-Sector

In this paper, a wide incidence angle-insensitive metamaterial absorber is proposed using eight-circular-sector (ECS). Under normal incidence, the proposed absorber shows high absorptivity at different polarizations due to its symmetric geometry. Under oblique incidence, zero-reflection conditions for transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarization are different. Nevertheless, the proposed absorber shows high absorptivity under oblique incidence of both TE and TM polarization due to ECS. The performance of the proposed absorber was demonstrated with full-wave simulation and measurements. The simulated absorptivity at the specular angles exceed 90% and the frequency variation is less than 0.7% at approximately 9.26 GHz up to a 70° incidence angle in both TM and TE polarization. We built the proposed absorber on a printed-circuit board with 20 × 20 unit cells, and we demonstrated its performance experimentally in free space. The measured absorptivity at 9.26 GHz for the specular angles is close to 98% for all polarization angles under normal incidence. As the incidence angle is varied from 0° to 70°, the measured absorptivity at 9.26 GHz for the specular angles remain above 92% in both TE and TM polarization.