Broadband ultrathin low-profile metamaterial microwave absorber

In this paper, a single-layer broadband low-profile ultrathin metamaterial microwave absorber is proposed for wide angle of incidence. The proposed absorber provides triple-band absorption under normal incidence of electromagnetic wave with two peaks lying in X-band and one in Ku-band. The unit cell is designed by using parametric optimization in such a way that the three peaks merge together to give broadband absorption. The absorber exhibits full width at half maxima bandwidth (FWHM) of 7.75 GHz from 7.55 to 15.30 GHz for wide angle of incidence up to 60 degrees for both TE and TM polarizations. The mechanism of absorption of the absorber has been analyzed by field and surface current distributions. The proposed absorber has been fabricated and experimentally tested for different angles of incidence and polarization of the incident wave. The absorber is low profile with unit cell dimension of the order of 0.168 lambda(0), and it is ultrathin with a thickness of similar to lambda(0)/17 at the center frequency of 11.43 GHz corresponding to the FWHM absorption bandwidth. This proposed absorber can be used for many potential applications such as stealth technology, cloaking and in antenna systems.