Mechanically stretchable and tunable metamaterial absorber

• Published in: Applied physics letters Vol. 106; no. 9
• Main Authors: Zhang, Fuli, Feng, Shuqi, Qiu, Kepeng, Liu, Zijun, Fan, Yuancheng, Zhang, Weihong, Zhao, Qian, Zhou, Ji
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Melville American Institute of Physics 02-03-2015
• Subjects: Absorbers (materials); Absorption; Applied physics; Dielectric strength; Magnetic resonance; Metamaterials; Resonators; Rubber layers
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.4914502

In this letter, we present experimental demonstration of a mechanically stretchable and tunable metamaterial absorber composed of dielectric resonator stacked on a thin conductive rubber layer. A near unity absorption is observed due to strong local field confinement around magnetic Mie resonance of dielectric resonator. Furthermore, the interspacing between unit cells is modulated dynamically under uniaxial stress. Owing to the decreases of longitudinal coupling between neighboring unit cells, the resonant absorption peak is reversibly tuned by 410 MHz, as the stain varies up to 180% along H field direction. On the contrary, the resonant absorption state is nearly independent on strain variation when external stress is applied along E field direction, due to the weak transverse interplaying. The mechanically tunable metamaterial absorber featured by flexibility paves a way forwards for actual application.