Optically transparent microwave scattering reduction metasurface with tunable infrared radiation

Abstract

In this paper, an optically transparent coding metasurface is proposed, which can not only reduce the backscattering in ultra-wideband, but also modulate the infrared characteristics of the metasurface by modulating the electrification voltage, so that it can simulate as a false target in both microwave and infrared bands, to achieve the purpose of hiding the real target. In this scheme, two kinds of flexible ITO-PVC-ITO meta-atoms with high optical transparency are designed. The optimal meta-atoms arrangement is obtained by optimizing the relationship between an arbitrary coding arrangement of meta-atoms and their far-field pattern. And then, different types of IR features are obtained by voltage regulation of the electrothermal modules on the metasurface. The simulation and test results show that the proposed scheme can achieve RCS reduction for more than 10 dB in the broadband range (8–19 GHz), and the IR features are changed with voltage variation. The experimental results are consistent with the simulation results, indicating that the scheme has practical application value of multi-functional stealth and camouflage technology. • An optically transparent broadband low-scattering metasurface with IR tunable functionality is proposed. • The optimal arrangement of the metasurface composed of the two meta-atoms is obtained by using the optimization algorithm. • Results show that the RCS value can be reduced by more than 10 dB in the broadband range from 8 to 19 GHz. • The metasurface can quickly reach the preset temperature at a lower voltage.