A low-profile consolidated metastructure for multispectral signature management

This work pertains to the design, numerical investigation, and experimental demonstration of an optically transparent, lightweight, and conformable metastructure that exhibits multispectral signature management capabilities despite its extremely low-profile configuration. In comparison to the existing hierarchical approaches of designing multispectral stealth solutions, attention has been paid to accommodate the conflicting requirements of radar and infrared stealth using a single metasurface layer configuration, which required a few constraints to be incorporated during the design stage to ensure compatibility. This methodlogy promulgates the desired multispectral response with minimal manufacturing footprint and facilitates an efficient integration with the other existing countermeasure platforms. The resulting design exhibits a polarization-insensitive and incident angle stable broadband microwave absorption with at least 90% absorption ranging from 8.2 to 18.4 GHz. Concomitantly it also exhibits an averaged infrared emissivity of 0.46 in the 8-14µm long-wave infrared regime, along with high optical transparency (71% transmission at 632.8nm). Notably, the total thickness of the metastructure stands at 0.10λ_L (λ_L corresponds to the wavelength at lowest frequency). The metastructure has been fabricated with ITO coated PET sheets, on which the frequency selective pattern is machined using Excimer laser micromachining, and the performances are verified experimentally. Furthermore, a hybrid theoretical model has been developed that not only provides crucial insights into the operation of metastructure but also presents a methodical semi-analytical approach to design.

Design of All-Dielectric Long-wave infrared Wide-angle Metalens

Optical metasurfaces are two-dimensional arrays of nano-scatterers that modify optical wavefronts at subwavelength spatial resolution. They achieve the effect of focusing through phase control under a sub-wavelength scale, named metalens. They are poised to revolutionize optics by enabling complex low-cost systems. However, there are monochromatic severe aberrations in the metasurfaces. In this paper,the long-wave infrared optical system coma is eliminated through a single-layer metasurface. By changing the phase function,this metalens have a numerical aperture of 0.89,a focal length of 150 μm,and a field of view of 120° (0.4@60lp/mm) that enables diffraction-limited monochromatic imaging along the focal plane at a wavelength of 10.6μm. And the designed metasurface maintains a favorable MTF value at different angles. This equipment can be widely used in imaging and industrial processing.