Broadband polarization-independent wide-angle and reconfigurable phase transition hybrid metamaterial absorber

Abstract

We report the simulation, fabrication, and experimental characterization of a single-layer broadband, polarization-insensitive and wide-angle near perfect metamaterial absorber (MA) in the microwave regime. The topology of the resonators is chosen in such a way that is capable of supporting simultaneously multiple plasmon resonances at adjacent frequencies, which lead to a broadband operation of the MA. Absorption larger than 80% at normal incidence covering a broad frequency range (between 7.4 GHz and 10.4 GHz) is demonstrated experimentally and through numerical simulations. Furthermore, the performance of the metamaterial absorber is kept constant up to an incident angle of 30°, for both TE and TM-polarizations. In addition, a hybrid model of the MA is proposed and implemented numerically in order to dynamically tune the absorption window. The hybrid MA is controlled by incorporating vanadium dioxide (VO2) temperature-driven metal-insulator phase transition material, which enables the transition from broadband (80% absorption and 3 GHz bandwidth) to narrowband (80% absorption and 0.7 GHz bandwidth) absorption window. Our proposed single-layer MA offers substantial advantages due to its low-cost and simplicity of fabrication. The results are very promising, suggesting a potential use of the MA in wide variety of applications including solar energy harvesting, biosensing, imaging, and stealth technology.