Perfect Metamaterial Absorber

Abstract

We present the design for an absorbing metamaterial (MM) with near unity absorbance $A(\omega )$. Our structure consists of two MM resonators that couple separately to electric and magnetic fields so as to absorb all incident radiation within a single unit cell layer. We fabricate, characterize, and analyze a MM absorber with a slightly lower predicted $A(\omega )$ of 96%. Unlike conventional absorbers, our MM consists solely of metallic elements. The substrate can therefore be optimized for other parameters of interest. We experimentally demonstrate a peak $A(\omega )$ greater than 88% at 11.5 GHz.