Recoverable Broadband Absorption Based on Ultra-Flexible Meta-Surfaces

Abstract

In this work, we demonstrated a tunable metamaterial perfect absorber (MPA) with broadband absorption by tuning the different states of flexible sandwiched structures (graphene conductive ink/rubber/metallic layers). The broadband absorption spectrum was tuned mechanically by changing the concave-up/down states of flexible hemispherical unit-cells. When the unit-cell was concave-up, our proposed MPAs played as a broadband absorber with a fractal bandwidth (FBW) of 107% (since an absorption over 90% ranges from 5.28 to 17.6 GHz) at the normal incidence; at the same time, this broadband absorption feature could remain well at large incident angles up to 40 deg. and regardless of polarization of the incoming electromagnetic waves. In the case of the concave-down state, a narrow FBW of only 6.8% was noticed. These results could promote great application potential, such as regarding advanced stealth devices, advances in the biomedical and the communication fields, and more.

Keywords

• metamaterial
• broadband absorption
• flexible sandwiched structures
• mechanical tuning