volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

Absorbing materials can absorb incident electromagnetic waves effectively and have important research value in radar fields. However, the current absorbing materials are mostly affected by the thickness and flexibility of the dielectric substrate, and they have shortcomings such as being not thin, not flexible, not folding, and not conformal with the protection target, which is not conducive to practical application. In this paper, we propose a flexible absorbing material that can be folded freely for wearable and practical engineering applications, which is composed of a conductive carbon paste ink resistance film layer, a flexible fabric dielectric substrate and a metal backplane. When the incidence angle is less than 30°, more than 90% absorption performance can be achieved at the operating frequency of 9.5-11.5 GHz with polarization insensitive characteristics. Simulated and experimental results prove the effectiveness of the structure. Our work provides the groundwork for the commercialization of future meta-devices such as wearable invisibility cloaks, sensors, optical filters/switchers, photodetectors, and energy converters.

1. Veselago, Viktor G., "The electrodynamics of substances with simultaneously negative values of ε and μ," Soviet Physics Uspekhi, Vol. 10, 509, 1968.
doi:10.1070/PU1968v010n04ABEH003699

2. Shelby, R. A., D. R. Smith, and S. Schultz, "Experimental verification of a negative index of refraction," Science, Vol. 292, No. 5514, 77-79, Apr. 2001.
doi:10.1126/science.1058847

3. Schurig, David, Jack J. Mock, B. J. Justice, Steven A. Cummer, John B. Pendry, Anthony F. Starr, and David R. Smith, "Metamaterial electromagnetic cloak at microwave frequencies," Science, Vol. 314, No. 5801, 977-980, 2006.
doi:10.1126/science.1133628

4. Marinov, K., A. D. Boardman, V. A. Fedotov, and N. Zheludev, "Toroidal metamaterial," New Journal of Physics, Vol. 9, No. 9, 324, 2007.

5. Magnus, F., B. Wood, J. Moore, Kelly Morrison, G. Perkins, J. Fyson, M. C. K. Wiltshire, D. Caplin, L. F. Cohen, and J. B. Pendry, "A d.c. magnetic metamaterial," Nature Materials, Vol. 7, 295-297, 2008.

6. Chen, Hou-Tong, Willie J. Padilla, Joshua M. O. Zide, Arthur C. Gossard, Antoinette J. Taylor, and Richard D. Averitt, "Active terahertz metamaterial devices," Nature, Vol. 444, 597-600, 2006.
doi:10.1038/nature05343

7. Huang, Min, Bin Zheng, Tong Cai, Xiaofeng Li, Jian Liu, Chao Qian, and Hongsheng Chen, "Machine-learning-enabled metasurface for direction of arrival estimation," Nanophotonics, Vol. 11, 2001-2010, 2022.

8. Zhu, Rongrong, Tianhang Chen, Kai Wang, Hao Wu, and Huan Lu, "Metasurface-enabled electromagnetic illusion with generic algorithm," Frontiers in Materials, Vol. 10, 2023.

9. Padilla, Willie J., Dimitri N. Basov, and David R. Smith, "Negative refractive index metamaterials," Materials Today, Vol. 9, No. 7-8, 28-35, 2006.

10. Dolling, Gunnar, Martin Wegener, Costas M. Soukoulis, and Stefan Linden, "Negative-index metamaterial at 780 nm wavelength," Optics Letters, Vol. 32, No. 1, 53-55, 2007.

11. Chen, Hongsheng and Min Chen, "Flipping photons backward: Reversed Cherenkov radiation," Materials Today, Vol. 14, No. 1-2, 34-41, 2011.
doi:10.1016/S1369-7021(11)70020-7

12. Duan, Zhaoyun, Xianfeng Tang, Zhanliang Wang, Yabin Zhang, Xiaodong Chen, Min Chen, and Yubin Gong, "Observation of the reversed Cherenkov radiation," Nature Communications, Vol. 8, 14901, 2017.

13. Seddon, N. and T. Bearpark, "Observation of the inverse Doppler effect," Science, Vol. 302, No. 5650, 1537-1540, 2003.
doi:10.1126/science.1089342

14. Lee, Sam Hyeon, Choon Mahn Park, Yong Mun Seo, and Chul Koo Kim, "Reversed Doppler effect in double negative metamaterials," Physical Review B, Vol. 81, 241102, Jun. 2010.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.81.241102

15. Zhai, S. L., X. P. Zhao, S. Liu, F. L. Shen, L. L. Li, and C. R. Luo, "Inverse Doppler effects in broadband acoustic metamaterials," Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, 32388, 2016.
doi:10.1038/srep32388

16. Lu, Huan, Bin Zheng, Tong Cai, Chao Qian, Yihao Yang, Zuojia Wang, and Hongsheng Chen, "Frequency-controlled focusing using achromatic metasurface," Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 9, No. 1, 2001311, Jan. 2021.
doi:10.1002/adom.202001311

17. Hu, Yufeng, Xuan Liu, Mingke Jin, Yutao Tang, Xuecai Zhang, King Fai Li, Yan Zhao, Guixin Li, and Jing Zhou, "Dielectric metasurface zone plate for the generation of focusing vortex beams," PhotoniX, Vol. 2, 10, Jun. 2021.
doi:10.1186/s43074-021-00035-z

18. Lu, Huan, Jiwei Zhao, Bin Zheng, Chao Qian, Tong Cai, Erping Li, and Hongsheng Chen, "Eye accommodation-inspired neuro-metasurface focusing," Nature Communications, Vol. 14, No. 1, 3301, 2023.
doi:10.1038/s41467-023-39070-8

19. Lu, Huan, Rongrong Zhu, Chi Wang, Tianze Hua, Siqi Zhang, and Tianhang Chen, "Soft actor-critic-driven adaptive focusing under obstacles," Materials, Vol. 16, No. 4, 1366, Feb. 2023.
doi:10.3390/ma16041366

20. Landy, N. I., S. Sajuyigbe, J. J. Mock, D. R. Smith, and W. J. Padilla, "Perfect metamaterial absorber," Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, 207402, 2008.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.207402

21. Cheng, Yongzhi, Helin Yang, Zhengze Cheng, and Nan Wu, "Perfect metamaterial absorber based on a split-ring-cross resonator," Applied Physics A, Vol. 102, 99-103, 2011.

22. Chen, Hou-Tong, "Interference theory of metamaterial perfect absorbers," Optics Express, Vol. 20, No. 7, 7165-7172, 2012.
doi:10.1364/OE.20.007165

23. Huang, Li, Dibakar Roy Chowdhury, Suchitra Ramani, Matthew T. Reiten, Sheng-Nian Luo, Abul K. Azad, Antoinette J. Taylor, and Hou-Tong Chen, "Impact of resonator geometry and its coupling with ground plane on ultrathin metamaterial perfect absorbers," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 101, 101102, 2012.
doi:10.1063/1.4749823

24. Rhee, J. Y., Y. J. Yoo, K. W. Kim, Y. J. Kim, and Y. P. Lee, "Metamaterial-based perfect absorbers," Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, Vol. 28, 1541-1580, 2014.
doi:10.1080/09205071.2014.944273

25. Zhao, Xiaoguang, Kebin Fan, Jingdi Zhang, Huseyin R. Seren, Grace D. Metcalfe, Michael Wraback, Richard D. Averitt, and Xin Zhang, "Optically tunable metamaterial perfect absorber on highly flexible substrate," Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, Vol. 231, 74-80, 2015.
doi:10.1016/j.sna.2015.02.040

26. Bowen, Patrick T., Alexandre Baron, and David R. Smith, "Theory of patch-antenna metamaterial perfect absorbers," Physical Review A, Vol. 93, 063849, Jun. 2016.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevA.93.063849

27. Lei, Ming, Ningyue Feng, Qingmin Wang, Yanan Hao, Shanguo Huang, and Ke Bi, "Magnetically tunable metamaterial perfect absorber," Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 119, 244504, 2016.

28. Liu, Xiaoming, Chuwen Lan, Ke Bi, Bo Li, Qian Zhao, and Ji Zhou, "Dual band metamaterial perfect absorber based on Mie resonances," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, No. 6, 062902, 2016.

29. Khuyen, Bui Xuan, Bui Son Tung, Young Joon Yoo, Young Ju Kim, Ki Won Kim, Liang-Yao Chen, Vu Dinh Lam, and YoungPak Lee, "Miniaturization for ultrathin metamaterial perfect absorber in the VHF band," Scientific Reports, Vol. 7, 45151, 2017.

30. Schalch, Jacob, Guangwu Duan, Xiaoguang Zhao, Xin Zhang, and Richard D. Averitt, "Terahertz metamaterial perfect absorber with continuously tunable air spacer layer," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 113, No. 6, 061113, 2018.

31. Liu, Xiaoming, Chuwen Lan, Bo Li, Qian Zhao, and Ji Zhou, "Dual band metamaterial perfect absorber based on artificial dielectric `molecules'," Scientific Reports, Vol. 6, 28906, 2016.

32. Amiri, Majid, Farzad Tofigh, Negin Shariati, Justin Lipman, and Mehran Abolhasan, "Review on metamaterial perfect absorbers and their applications to IoT," IEEE Internet of Things Journal, Vol. 8, No. 6, 4105-4131, 2021.

33. Huang, Min, Bin Zheng, Ruichen Li, Xiaofeng Li, Yijun Zou, Tong Cai, and Hongsheng Chen, "Diffraction neural network for multi-source information of arrival sensing," Laser & Photonics Reviews, Vol. 17, No. 10, 2300202, 2023.

34. Wu, Guozhang, Xiaofei Jiao, Yuandong Wang, Zeping Zhao, Yibo Wang, and Jianguo Liu, "Ultra-wideband tunable metamaterial perfect absorber based on vanadium dioxide," Optics Express, Vol. 29, No. 2, 2703-2711, 2021.

35. Zhu, Rongrong, Dan Liu, Huan Lu, Liang Peng, Tong Cai, and Bin Zheng, "High-efficiency Pancharatnam-Berry metasurface-based surface plasma coupler," Advanced Photonics Research, 2300315, 2023.

36. Zheng, Bin, Huan Lu, Chao Qian, Dexin Ye, Yu Luo, and Hongsheng Chen, "Revealing the transformation invariance of full-parameter omnidirectional invisibility cloaks," Electromagnetic Science, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1-7, 2023.

37. Zhen, Zheng, Chao Qian, Yuetian Jia, Zhixiang Fan, Ran Hao, Tong Cai, Bin Zheng, Hongsheng Chen, and Erping Li, "Realizing transmitted metasurface cloak by a tandem neural network," Photonics Research, Vol. 9, No. 5, B229-B235, 2021.

38. Li, Ruichen, Yutong Jiang, Rongrong Zhu, Yijun Zou, Lian Shen, and Bin Zheng, "Design of ultra-thin underwater acoustic metasurface for broadband low-frequency diffuse reflection by deep neural networks," Scientific Reports, Vol. 12, No. 1, 12037, 2022.

39. Banadaki, Mohsen Dehghan, Abbas Ali Heidari, and Mansor Nakhkash, "A metamaterial absorber with a new compact unit cell," IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters, Vol. 17, No. 2, 205-208, 2018.

40. Bhati, Amit, Kirankumar R. Hiremath, and Vivek Dixit, "Bandwidth enhancement of Salisbury screen microwave absorber using wire metamaterial," Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, Vol. 60, No. 4, 891-897, 2018.

41. Kim, Jongyeong, Heijun Jeong, and Sungjoon Lim, "Mechanically actuated frequency reconfigurable metamaterial absorber," Sensors and Actuators A: Physical, Vol. 299, 111619, 2019.

42. Long, L. V., N. S. Khiem, B. S. Tung, N. T. Tung, T. T. Giang, P. T. Son, B. X. Khuyen, V. D. Lam, L. Chen, H. Zheng, and Y. Lee, "Flexible broadband metamaterial perfect absorber based on graphene-conductive inks," Photonics, Vol. 8, 2021.

43. Lai, Senfeng, Yanghui Wu, Junjie Wang, Wen Wu, and Wenhua Gu, "Optical-transparent flexible broadband absorbers based on the ITO-PET-ITO structure," Optical Materials Express, Vol. 8, No. 6, 1585-1592, 2018.

44. Park, Sangmin, Geonyeong Shin, Hyun Kim, Youngwan Kim, and Ick-Jae Yoon, "Polarization and incidence angle independent low-profile wideband metamaterial electromagnetic absorber using indium tin oxide (ITO) film," Applied Sciences, Vol. 11, No. 19, 9315, 2021.

45. Yin, Zhiping, Yujiao Lu, Sheng Gao, Jun Yang, Weien Lai, Zelun Li, and Guangsheng Deng, "Optically transparent and single-band metamaterial absorber based on indium-tin-oxide," International Journal of RF and Microwave Computer-Aided Engineering, Vol. 29, No. 2, e21536, 2019.

Mr. Ye Dong

Dr. Zhangyou Yang

Dr. Siqi Zhang

Dr. Rongrong Zhu

Dr. Bin Zheng

Dr. Huan Lu