volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

Reflection reduction metasurface is capable of suppressing the radar cross section of a target, which is of great importance in stealth technology. However, it is still a challenge to realize broadband and low-profile simultaneously within a simple design. Here, we experimentally demonstrate an ultra-thin wideband reflection reduction metasurface, which is achieved by utilizing polarization conversion instead of resonant absorption. The simple cut-wire unit cell is adopted to perform efficient cross polarization conversion, which leads to a polarization conversion ratio above 90% ranging from 8.4 to 14.7 GHz. By arranging the 0/1 units in chessboard layout, the reflection reduction reaches 10\,dB from 8.1 GHz to 14.6 GHz. Measured results agree well with simulated ones, which validates the effectiveness of the proposed structure. The ratio of thickness to maximum wavelength reaches 0.56 while the relative bandwidth reaches 57.3%, demonstrating an excellent comprehensive performance. Since our structure consists of refractory ceramic materials, it is promising for radar cross section reduction in high temperature environment.

1. Pang, Y., Y. Li, J. Wang, M. Yan, S. Qu, S. Xia, and Z. Xu, "Electromagnetic reflection reduction of carbon composite materials mediated by collaborative mechanisms," Carbon, Vol. 147, 112-119, 2019.
doi:10.1016/j.carbon.2019.03.004

2. Zhang, Y., Y. Huang, T. Zhang, H. Chang, P. Xiao, H. Chen, Z. Huang, and Y. Chen, "Broadband and tunable high-performance microwave absorption of an ultralight and highly compressible graphene foam," Advanced Materials, Vol. 27, 2049-2053, 2015.
doi:10.1002/adma.201405788

3. Rozanov, K. N., "Ultimate thickness to bandwidth ratio of radar absorbers," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 48, 1230-1234, 2000.
doi:10.1109/8.884491

4. Lee, D., S. So, G. Hu, M. Kim, T. Badloe, H. Cho, J. Kim, H. Kim, C. Qiu, and J. Rho, "Hyperbolic metamaterials: Fusing artificial structures to natural 2D materials," eLight, Vol. 2, 1, 2022.
doi:10.1186/s43593-021-00008-6

5. Yu, N., P. Genevet, M. Kats, F. Aieta, J. Tetienne, F. Capasso, and Z. Gaburro, "Light propagation with phase discontinuities: Generalized laws of reflection and refraction," Science, Vol. 334, 333-337, 2011.
doi:10.1126/science.1210713

6. 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

7. Yu, P., L. V. Besteiro, Y. Huang, J. Wu, L. Fu, H. H. Tan, C. Jagadish, G. P. Wiederrecht, A. O. Govorov, and Z. Wang, "Broadband metamaterial absorbers," Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 7, 1800995, 2019.
doi:10.1002/adom.201800995

8. Cui, T., M. Qi, X. Wan, J. Zhao, and Q. Cheng, "Coding metamaterials, digital metamaterials and programmable metamaterials," Light: Science & Application, Vol. 3, e218, 2014.
doi:10.1038/lsa.2014.99

9. Liang, L., M. Qi, J. Yang, X. Shen, J. Zhai, W. Xu, B. Jin, W. Liu, Y. Feng, C. Zhang, H. Lu, H. Chen, L. Kang, W. Xu, J. Chen, T. Cui, and P., "Anomalous terahertz reflection and scattering by flexible and conformal coding metamaterials," Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 3, 1374-1380, 2015.
doi:10.1002/adom.201500206

10. Li, Y., W. Li, Y. Wang, J. Cao, and J. Guan, "Refractory metamaterial microwave absorber with strong absorption insensitive to temperature," Advanced Optical Materials, Vol. 6, 1800691, 2018.
doi:10.1002/adom.201800691

11. Shao, T., H. Ma, J. Wang, M. Yan, M. Feng, Z. Yang, Q. Zhou, J. Wang, Y. Meng, S. Zhao, and S. Qu, "Ultra-thin and high temperature NiCrAlY alloy metamaterial enhanced radar absorbing coating," Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Vol. 832, 154945, 2020.
doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2020.154945

12. Yang, Z., F. Luo, W. Zhou, H. Jia, and D. Zhu, "Design of a thin and broadband microwave absorber using double layer frequency selective surface," Journal of Alloys and Compounds, Vol. 699, 534-539, 2017.
doi:10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.01.019

13. Tian, H., H. Liu, and H. Cheng, "A high-temperature radar absorbing structure: Design, fabrication, and characterization," Composites Science and Technology, Vol. 90, 202-208, 2014.
doi:10.1016/j.compscitech.2013.11.013

14. Chen, J., Q. Cheng, J. Zhao, D. S. Dong, and T.-J. Cui, "Reduction of radar cross section based on a metasurface," Progress In Electromagnetics Research, Vol. 146, 71-76, 2014.
doi:10.2528/PIER14022606

15. Zhou, Y., Y. Yang, J. Xie, H. Chen, G. Zhang, F. Li, L. Zhang, X. Wang, X. Weng, P. Zhou, and L. Deng, "Broadband RCS reduction for electrically-large open-ended cavity using random coding metasurfaces," Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 52, 315-303, 2019.

16. Sun, L., X. Wang, Z. Yu, J. Huang, and L. Deng, "Patterned AlN ceramic for high-temperature broadband reflection reduction," Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, Vol. 52, 235102, 2019.
doi:10.1088/1361-6463/ab105e

17. Xie, X., M. Pu, Y. Huang, X. Ma, X. Li, Y. Guo, and X. Luo, "Heat resisting metallic meta-skin for simultaneous microwave broadband scattering and infrared invisibility based on catenary optical field," Advanced Materials Technologies, Vol. 4, 1800612, 2019.
doi:10.1002/admt.201800612

18. Hao, J., Y. Yuan, L. Ran, T. Jiang, J. A. Kong, C. T. Chan, and L. Zhou, "Manipulating electromagnetic wave polarizations by anisotropic metamaterials," Physical Review Letters, Vol. 99, 063908, 2007.
doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.063908

19. Li, F., L. Zhang, P. Zhou, H. Chen, R. Zhao, Y. Zhou, D. Liang, H. Lu, and L. Deng, "Dual-band reflective polarization converter based on slotted wire resonators," Applied Physics B: Lasers and Optics, Vol. 124, 28, 2018.
doi:10.1007/s00340-018-6900-6

20. Nama, L., Nilotpal, S. Bhattacharyya, and P. K. Jain, "A metasurface-based, ultrathin, dual-band, linear-to-circular, reflective polarization converter," IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, Vol. 63, 100-110, 2021.
doi:10.1109/MAP.2020.3043460

21. Huang, X., D. Yang, and H. Yang, "Multiple-band reflective polarization converter using U-shaped metamaterial," Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, 103505, 2014.
doi:10.1063/1.4868076

22. Shi, H., J. Li, A. Zhang, J. Wang, and Z. Xu, "Broadband cross polarization converter using plasmon hybridizations in a ring/disk cavity," Optics Express, Vol. 22, 20973-20981, 2014.
doi:10.1364/OE.22.020973

23. Loncar, J., A. Grbic, and S. Hrabar, "A reflective polarization converting metasurface at X-band frequencies," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 66, 3213-3218, 2018.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2018.2816784

24. Lin, B., B. Wang, W. Meng, X. Da, W. Li, Y. Fang, and Z. Zhu, "Dual-band high-efficiency polarization converter using an anisotropic metasurface," Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 119, 183103, 2016.
doi:10.1063/1.4948957

25. Chen, H., J. Wang, H. Ma, S. Qu, Z. Xu, A. Zhang, M. Yan, and Y. Li, "Ultra-wideband polarization conversion metasurfaces based on multiple plasmon resonances," Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 115, 154504, 2014.
doi:10.1063/1.4869917

26. Jia, Y., Y. Liu, W. Zhang, and S. Gong, "Ultra-wideband and high-efficiency polarization rotator based on metasurface," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, 051901, 2016.
doi:10.1063/1.4960355

27. Jiang, W., Y. Xue, and S.-X. Gong, "Polarization conversion metasurface for broadband radar cross section reduction," Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, Vol. 62, 9-15, 2016.
doi:10.2528/PIERL16060504

28. Jia, Y., Y. Liu, Y. J. Guo, K. Li, and S. Gong, "Broadband polarization rotation reflective surfaces and their applications to RCS reduction," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 64, 179-188, 2016.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2015.2502981

29. Long, M., W. Jiang, and S. Gong, "Wideband RCS reduction using polarization conversion metasurface and partially reflecting surface," IEEE Antennas Wireless and Propagation Letters, Vol. 16, 2534, 2017.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2017.2731862

30. Khalaj-Amirhosseini, M. and M. Khanjarian, "Radar cross section reduction using polarization cancellation approach," Progress In Electromagnetics Research Letters, Vol. 74, 107-110, 2018.
doi:10.2528/PIERL18020401

31. Al-Nuaimi, M. K. T., W. Hong, and Y. He, "Design of diffusive modified chessboard metasurface," IEEE Antennas Wireless and Propagation Letters, Vol. 18, 1621-1625, 2019.
doi:10.1109/LAWP.2019.2925378

32. Zhou, Y., X. Cao, J. Gao, H. Yang, and S. Li, "Reconfigurable metasurface for multiple functions: Magnitude, polarization and phase modulation," Optics Express, Vol. 26, 29451-29459, 2018.
doi:10.1364/OE.26.029451

33. Yang, J., Y. Cheng, D. Qi, and R. Gong, "Study of energy scattering relation and RCS reduction characteristic of matrix-type coding metasurface," Applied Sciences-Basel, Vol. 8, 1231, 2018.
doi:10.3390/app8081231

34. Liu, Y., Y. Jia, W. Zhang, and F. Li, "Wideband RCS reduction of a slot array antenna using a hybrid metasurface," IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol. 68, 3644-3652, 2020.
doi:10.1109/TAP.2019.2963575

35. Xu, J., R. Li, S. Wang, and T. Han, "Ultra-broadband linear polarization converter based on anisotropic metasurface," Optics Express, Vol. 26, 26235-26241, 2018.
doi:10.1364/OE.26.026235

36. Hu, C., X. Li, Q. Feng, X. Chen, and X. Luo, "Investigation on the role of the dielectric loss in metamaterial absorber," Optics Express, Vol. 18, 6598-6603, 2010.
doi:10.1364/OE.18.006598

37. Zhang, L., S. Liu, L. Li, and T. Cui, "Spin-controlled multiple pencil beams and vortex beams with different polarizations generated by pancharatnam-berry coding metasurfaces," ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Vol. 9, 36447-36455, 2017.
doi:10.1021/acsami.7b12468

38. Al-Nuaimi, M. K. T., Y. He, and W. Hong, "Design of 1-bit coding engineered reflectors for EM-wave shaping and RCS modifications," IEEE Access, Vol. 6, 75422-75428, 2018.
doi:10.1109/ACCESS.2018.2883721

39. Chen, Z. and M. Segev, "Highlighting photonics: Looking into the next decade," eLight, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2021.

Dr. Tiancheng Han

Dr. Kaihuai Wen

Dr. Zixuan Xie

Dr. Xiuli Yue