A super-compact metamaterial absorber cell in L-band Available to Purchase

A super-compact metamaterial absorber (SMA) unit cell in L band (1–2 GHz) is proposed, which is composed of a pair of electric ring resonator (ERR) and its complementary ERR (CERR) with a high dielectric substrate sandwiched in between. The CERR has a cross sectional area where approximately the etched copper foil in ERR is now retained, and the remaining region is now etched. In contract with quarter-wavelength (⁠$λ/4$⁠) thickness which is required for conventional absorbers, the largest in-plane dimension and thickness of the SMA cell are only $λ/33$ and $λ/250$⁠, respectively, leading to a super compact cell volume. While traditionally the long straight wire is introduced in electric-LC resonators for increasing inductance, the CERR achieves similar inductance with much shorter lengths. Thus, its cell dimensions can be drastically reduced without compromising its performance. In addition, simulations together with an automated phase correction algorithm show that the SMA is a type of metamaterial possessing simultaneous negative electric permittivity (NEP) and negative magnetic permeability (NMP). Further the SMA has a very large imaginary part of the NEP and NMP, resulting in significantly large imaginary part of the refractive index at resonant frequency. These properties are well suited to design excellent absorbers. In addition, numerical results demonstrate that the maximum absorption coefficient of the SMA can reach greater than 99% at resonant frequency, and the full-width half-maximum is roughly 1% of the operating frequency, and a wide incident angle of $±49$° over 90% absorption. Meanwhile, it is pointed out that this type of absorber is rather sensitive to polarization characteristic of the incident electromagnetic wave.