Easy-to-Manufacture In-Line 2D Nano Antenna for Enhanced Radiation-Cooled IR Camouflage

Abstract

Deterministic control of infrared (IR) emitting is attractive for applications in sensors and camouflage. Functional materials and structures that can restrain the surface temperature rise via radiation cooling and inhibit the detectable emitting for camouflage have been developed, yet ideal coordination between the cooling and camouflage considering both design and manufacture purposes remains challenging. Here, we reported an in-line 2D nano antenna for IR camouflage. The in-line 2D configuration was intended for rapid and easy-to-manufacture via efficient direct-writing techniques, e.g., femtosecond laser. We innovatively adopted the detectable IR radiation power as the optimization fitness function, based on the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm, to execute powerful cooling and simultaneously minimize the emitting within the atmospheric window for enhanced camouflage. The optimized structure was manufactured and was compared with the previous IR camouflage structures. The PSO structure reduced the detectable IR radiation power by 55.5–73.6% and suppressed the lock-on range by 33.3–48.6%. Moreover, the function of the in-line 2D nano antenna is insensitive to polarization and angle incidence, which is essential for industrial use. Our work proposed new examples of functional structure design-manufacture strategy for applications including but certainly not limited to cooling, sensors, and camouflage of high-power density advanced systems.