Electromagnetic protection materials are widely used in both military and civilian fields. However, the limited wave-absorbing band and low transparency of conventional electromagnetic protection materials are the impediment for extensive applications. Here, a transparent and electrically tunable wave-absorbing metamaterial for stealth technology and electromagnetic protection has been theoretically and experimentally realized. The trend of the absorption feature change in simulation is consistent with that of the experiment results. The main part of this material adopts a sandwich structure consisting of two layers of indium tin oxide (ITO) and one layer of glass in between. The upper ITO layer is periodically patterned and combined with varactor diodes, which function as a frequency-selective surface. The effective operating frequency range is in the S-band, which covers the common frequency band of WiFi and many other electronic devices. The wave absorbing performance of this material can be electronically tunable by changing the applied voltage. The main absorption peak can be up to 90% with a tunable amplitude range of 30% and a tunable frequency band range of 1 GHz, and the transmittance of the sample in the visible is 80.23%. The metamaterial has high performance on electromagnetic shielding, whose effectiveness is larger than 30 dB in the range of 2.6–3.95 GHz. This transparent and tunable metamaterial has great potential for the applications in electromagnetic protection and stealth.

A transparent and tunable metamaterial absorber with simultaneously low infrared (IR) emissivity is proposed in this Letter. The designed structure consists of an infrared shielding layer (IRSL), a radar absorber layer (RAL), and an air/water dielectric layer with an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) backplane. Both the IRSL and RAL are made of ITO films and polyethylene terephthalate substrates, so the absorber exhibits optical transparency. By changing the thickness of the water layer, the 90% absorption band can be converted from 7.6–12.5 to 12.8–18.2 GHz. The absorber is polarization insensitive and stable at wide incidence angles. The IR emission value of IRSL is 0.24. Both numerical simulations and experimental measurements demonstrated the good performance of the proposed structure, indicating its great potential applications in multi-spectrum compatible stealth.

This paper proposed a single-layer checkerboard metasurface with simultaneous wideband radar cross-section (RCS) reduction characteristics and low infrared (IR) emissivity. The metasurface consists of an indium tin oxide (ITO)-patterned film, a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate and an ITO backplane from the top downwards, with a total ultra-thin thickness of 1.6 mm. This design also allows the metasurface to have good optical transparency and flexibility. Based on phase cancellation and absorption, the metasurface can achieve a wideband RCS reduction of 10 dB from 10.6 to 19.4 GHz under normal incidence. When the metasurface is slightly cylindrically curved, an RCS reduction of approximately 10 dB can still be achieved from 11 to 19 GHz. The polarization and angular stability of the metasurface have also been verified. The filling rate of the top ITO-patterned film is 0.81, which makes the metasurface have a low theoretical IR emissivity of 0.24. Both simulation and experimental results have verified the excellent characteristics of the proposed checkerboard metasurface, demonstrating its great potential application in radar–IR bi-stealth.

An optically transparent chessboard metasurface is proposed to achieve wideband radar cross section (RCS) reduction in this paper. The metasurface is a single-layer sandwich structure composed of indium-tin-oxide (ITO) square patches with different sizes and surface resistances, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate, and ITO backplane from the top downwards. Based on optimized multielement phase cancellation (OMEPC) to select the sizes and surface resistances of ITO patches, the proposed metasurface can achieve the 10 dB RCS reduction from 10.1 to 26.4 GHz with a relative bandwidth of 89% under normal incidence. The total thickness of the metasurface is 2 mm, which makes it highly flexible. When there is a slight cylindrical curvature on the metasurface and the curvature angle is less than 30°, an approximate 10 dB RCS reduction can still be achieved in the frequency range of 10-25 GHz under normal incidence. When the oblique incidence angle is less than 45°, the proposed metasurface also exhibits nearly 10 dB RCS reduction at the specular direction in the frequency range of 10-25 GHz. Finally, a sample is fabricated and measured, and the experimental results are in good agreement with the simulation results.

A transparent metamaterial absorber (MMA) with both tunable absorption bandwidth and low infrared (IR) emissivity is proposed in this paper. The MMA is hierarchical, which consists of an infrared shielding layer (IRSL), two radar-absorption layers (RALs), an air/water layer, and an indium–tin–oxide (ITO) backplane from the top downwards. The IRSL and the RALs are made of ITO patterns etched on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates. By changing the thickness of the water, the 90% absorption bandwidth can be tuned from 6.4–11.3 GHz to 12.7–20.6 GHz, while retaining good polarization and angular stability. An equivalent circuit model (ECM) is present, to reveal the physical mechanism of absorption. The proposed MMA has a low theoretical IR emissivity of about 0.24. A sample was fabricated and measured, and the experimental results are consistent with the simulation results, showing its potential applications in stealth glass and multifunctional radome.

The tunability of traditional frequency selective surfaces (FSSs) is inconvenient using metal material patch as periodic element, utilizing genetic algorithms to model FSS layers obtaining desired filtering electromagnetic waves effect. However, plasma tube is used as an element of the frequency selection surfaces substituting traditional metal patch in this article. A 3-D finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) formulation for dispersive media called the JE convolution (JEC) method is derived using the convolution relationship between the current density J and the electric field E to simulate the interaction of incident wave and magnetized plasma FSS. Numerical experimental results show that the electron number density of magnetized plasma has a significant effect on the resonance frequency, which can be modulated to the desired filtering by varying the density in the magnetized plasma elements. Whereas the magnetized plasma FSSs behave exactly like a perfect electric conductor (PEC) increasing the electron number density to a certain degree. Thus, modulation based on the ionized electron number density of the magnetized plasma can be designed into a tunable plasma FSS. Both the collision model and the noncollision model of the magnetized plasma are proposed to research electromagnetic transmission characteristics of FSS. It shows that the collision frequency only affects the reflectivity while has no effect on the resonance frequency in the following numerical experiments. In addition, magnetization intensity of the plasma FSS is also taken into consideration. The users obtaining the desired resonance frequency and transmission characteristics of plasma FSS by simply tuning the plasma's electron number density, collision frequency, and magnetization intensity. So the magnetized plasma FSS can not only improve the electromagnetic shielding effect but also facilitate the modulation and rapid response to achieve the desired filtering effect. What is more, the magnetized plasma FSS can be turned off to achieve transparency, which greatly expands the universality of magnetized plasma FSS.