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Design, synthesis, characterization and

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Himangshu Bhusan Baskey, M. Jaleel Akhtar, A.K. Dixit & T.C. Shami

To cite this article: Himangshu Bhusan Baskey, M. Jaleel Akhtar, A.K. Dixit & T.C. Shami
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 Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications, 2015
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09205071.2015.1075907

Design, synthesis, characterization and performance evaluation of

multi-band perfect metamaterial absorber
Himangshu Bhusan Baskeya,b*, M. Jaleel Akhtara, A.K. Dixitb and T.C. Shamib
a
Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India; bDefence
Downloaded by [Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur] at 22:53 16 September 2015

Materials Stores Research and Development Establishment (DMSRDE), Kanpur, India

(Received 27 January 2015; accepted 20 July 2015)

This paper presents the design, synthesis, characterization, and performance

evaluation of a metamaterial absorber having four distinct absorption peaks. The
proposed absorber is based on the periodic array of the hexagonal closed rings and
octa-star structure printed over the dielectric substrate. The dimensions of unit cell
are optimized such that the absorption takes place at the distinct frequency near the
Federal Communications Commission defined radar spectrum e.g. at 4.10, 6.15,
10.05, and 15.52 GHz with the absorptivity of 0.98, 0.99, 0.99, and 0.99, respec-
tively. The proposed structure is fabricated and the experimental result shows high
absorptivity under transverse electric and magnetic polarization for the wide angle
of incidence angles, which is in concurrence with the simulated results. The equiva-
lent circuit model of the absorber has been developed sequentially for each of the
structure. Furthermore, the complex refractive index of the metamaterial structure
has been retrieved in order to have a detailed analysis, which supports the absorp-
tion phenomena at all the corresponding frequencies. The proposed metamaterial
structure appears to be a potential candidate for absorber applications in the radar
cross-section reduction, thermal detectors, and thermal imaging.
Keywords: electromagnetic absorbers; free-space measurement; metamaterials;
refractive index

1. Introduction
Over the last few years, metamaterials have been the area of great interest due to its
unusual electromagnetic properties such as negative permittivity, permeability, and
refractive index.[1–3] These exotic features have created immense potential opportuni-
ties in many areas of electromagnetic application such as microwave lens imaging,
cloaking,[4] and miniaturization of antennas and filters.[5] Among all these fantastic
applications, metamaterial-based electromagnetic absorber has attracted considerable
attention due to thinner design, light weight, robustness, band tunability, and the near-
unity absorption in various frequency bands including microwave,[6,7] terahertz,[8,9]
near-infrared,[10] and optical regions.[11,12] These aforementioned features of
metamaterial absorbers (MAs) have created immense opportunities for the solution of
electromagnetic interference problems, stealth technology for radar cross-section (RCS)
reduction,[13,14] solar-cell,[15] photo-detector,[16] bio-sensor,[17] thermal-emitter,[18]
and so on. The initial impetus driving the MA was proposed by Landy et al. [19],
consisting of electric resonators and the cut wires having a response of near-unity

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

© 2015 Taylor & Francis

 2 H.B. Baskey et al.

absorption. The basic underlying concept behind MA is governed by inductance and

capacitance, which couple with either electric or magnetic field in order to induce the
electric or magnetic resonance response based on the Lorentz model.[20] After the
study of Landy et al. Cheng and Yang [21] also proposed a MA having near-unity
absorption. Gu et al. [22] embedded the resistors into the MA in order to increase the
bandwidth in the GHz regime. In recent years, various other approaches have also been
used for the extension of MAs for the higher frequencies.[23] The concept of terahertz
MA was initially proposed by Tao et al. [8], using the split-ring resonators and bottom
metallic layer structure which can operate over wide angle of incidence for both the
transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations. However, due to
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the resonant nature of metamaterials, it has limitation of narrow frequency bandwidth,

so in order to extend the absorption bandwidth, efforts have been carried out for multi-
band and band tunable absorbers, multi-band operation of MA can be accomplished
using multi-frequency resonator approach, where different resonators in different shapes
and size can be combined together.
In this paper, hexagonal closed rings (HCRs) and octa-star structure (OSS)-based
polarization-insensitive wide-angle thin MA structure is proposed, which shows absorp-
tion at four distinct frequency bands with two of them lying in C-band and one each in
X and Ku band, respectively. By optimizing the geometry of the proposed structure,
absorption peaks are achieved at the frequency of operation of air-borne and surveil-
lance radar applications as specified by the Federal Communications Commission.[24]
Four distinctive absorption peaks have been observed at 4.10, 6.15, 10.05, and
15.52 GHz with the absorption rates of 98.72, 99.20, 99.21, and 99.90%, respectively,
having a thickness of λ/73 at the lowest fundamental resonant frequency. In addition,
the surface current and the electric field (E-field) distribution analysis have been carried
out in order to analyze the loss and resonant mechanism. The equivalent circuit model
of the proposed structure has been carried out by calculating the effective lumped cir-
cuit elements of the individual components furthermore, mutual coupling between them
was also taken into account. The complex refractive index of the structure was calcu-
lated in order to have a brief insight about the structure. Finally, the structure has been
fabricated which shows excellent absorption values and polarization insensitive charac-
teristics, which are in good concurrence with the simulated results. The proposed
hexagonal structure having features of sixfold symmetry, gives additional degree of
freedom along with OSS structure and provides the polarization-insensitive perfor-
mance. Moreover, it is demonstrated that the resonant frequency of MA can be flexibly
controlled by adjusting the width of OSS, while not changing the size of the unit cell
structure. Apart from the above, the proposed structure can be scaled for operation at
terahertz and optical frequencies.

2. Design of the MA structure

The unit cell of the proposed MA presented in this paper is shown in Figure 1(a), which
consists of HCRs with the OSS topology designed in a periodic pattern. The structure has
been designed using copper having a conductivity of 5.8 × 107 s/m and thickness of
0.035 mm, whereas the bottom layer of the structure is terminated by copper as the
ground plane. The copper patterns are separated by a dielectric FR-4 substrate having a
thickness (t) of 1.0 mm, relative permittivity (εr) of 4.3, and loss tangent of 0.025. The
optimized dimensions of the absorber structure are g1 = 5.75 mm, g2 = 5.50 mm,
g3 = 5.1 mm, g4 = 0.5 mm, w1 = 0.25 mm, w2 = 0.40 mm, w3 = 0.50 mm, h1 = 4 mm,
 Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications 3
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Figure 1. (a) The front view of the unit cell along with the direction of the incident plane wave
and (b) simulated absorbance of the structure.

and l = 14 mm. The MA is designed using the CST microwave studio,[25] the directions
of E-field, magnetic field, and the incident wave, which is assumed to be perpendicular to
the surface of the structure, which are shown in the Figure 1. The absorption in the
structure is calculated using expression (1).
AðxÞ ¼ 1  jS11 ðxÞj2 jS21 ðxÞj2 (1)

In the above expression, A(ω), |S11 (ω)|2, and |S21 (ω)|2 represent the absorptivity,
reflectivity, and the transmitted power, respectively, at an angular frequency ω. Since in
our case, the back surface of structure is completely copper laminated, so |S21 (ω)| = 0
which reduces Equation (1) to A(ω) = 1−|S11 (ω)|2; hence, the absorption can be maxi-
mized by minimizing the reflection from the structure. It is observed that during inci-
dence of the plane wave, HCRs and OSS induce the inductance, while the dielectric
substrate on which the structure is designed produces the capacitance. These two effects
combine together to create the absorption at 4.10, 6.15, 10.05, and 15.52 GHz,
respectively. A detailed analysis of the absorption phenomenon is explained in the next
section of the paper.

3. Simulated results
The proposed MA shown in the Figure 1(a) is simulated using the CST microwave stu-
dio by applying periodic boundary conditions along “x” and “y” directions for the nor-
mal angle as well as various other incident angles. The absorption peaks for the normal
angle of incidence occur at 4.10, 6.15, 10.05, and 15.52 GHz with absorption values of
98.72, 99.20, 99.21, and 99.90%, respectively, as shown in the Figure 1(b). The maxi-
mum bandwidth for full width half maximum is 650 MHz, corresponding to the fourth
absorption peak. In order to further investigate the absorbance under various polariza-
tions, i.e. TE and TM, the structure was simulated for various polarization angles
(0°–60°). Figure 2(a) shows the simulated absorption curves under TE polarization for
different incident angles (θ). It can be observed from this figure that for the three
fundamental frequencies, i.e. f1, f2, f3, the absorption values are more than 98%, corre-
sponding to the absorption of 98.27, 98.19, and 98.22%, respectively, for the incidence
angle 60°. The fourth resonance peak shifts slightly from its fundamental resonance
 4 H.B. Baskey et al.
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Figure 2. (a) Simulated absorption for TE polarization and (b) simulated absorption for TM
polarization.

(f4) at the polarization angle 60°; however, the absorption corresponding to it remains
significantly high (98.75%). It is to be noted that apart from the fundamental
absorption frequencies under TE polarization angles, (θ = 0°–60°) some additional
absorption peaks are generated. For the polarization angle 30°, additional peaks having
absorption of 39.25, 41.17, and 57.84% are produced, whereas for the polarization
angle 60°, additional peaks corresponding to the absorption of 36.17 and 71.21% are
observed. For the case of TM polarization, as shown in Figure 2(b), absorptivity values
of 98.10, 99.55, 98.17, and 98.55% are observed for the four fundamental absorption
peaks under normal angle of incidence. Similar case is observed for the polarization
angle 30°, where additional absorptivity of 58.25 and 87.16% is found, whereas for the
higher incidence angle (60°), additional absorption corresponding to 63.21 and 88.17%
is observed.
The absorption peaks shown in the Figure 2 illustrate clearly that the proposed MA
operates quite well for TE and TM polarizations over a wide range of incidence angles.
The parametric variation for the inner most structure has been carried out in order to
study the variation in absorptivity. Figure 3(a) shows absorption, for the variation in
height (h1) of OSS; it can be observed that by increasing the height, absorption shifts
toward the lower side of the frequency region. Figure 3(b) shows variation in absorp-
tivity due to the parametric variation of width (g4), where it can be observed that maxi-
mum absorption is achieved for the optimized width, with further increase in the width,
absorption peak shifts to higher frequencies. In order to explore the absorption mecha-
nism of the structure, surface current distribution (SCD) for the top and bottom surfaces
and E-field analysis for the corresponding frequencies are shown in Figures 4 and 5,
respectively. Figure 4 shows the surface currents which are represented by arrows,
where it can be observed that for each of the absorption frequencies, currents are flow-
ing in opposite directions which constitute the circulating current loop. The circulating
current loop is responsible for magnetic excitation controlling the effective permeability
of the structure similar to the fishnet structure.[26] In addition to the above phenomena,
the SCD also gives rise to the dielectric loss within the substrate. The electric excitation
is governed by the incident E-field, which is coupled with the top metallic patch, at
resonant frequencies, together the electric and magnetic coupling becomes quite signifi-
cant, and thereby high absorption is realized. The E-field analysis has been carried out
for the respective resonant frequencies as shown in the Figure 5. It is observed from
the set of Figures 5(a) and (b) that the concentration of E-field is maximum at the
 Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications 5
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Figure 3. Simulated absorbing frequency shifts of the proposed MA by (a) variation of height
h1 and (b) width g4 of the inner most structure.

upper and lower arms of HCR, which are independent. It is observed from Figure 5(c)
that at 10.05 GHz, maximum intensity of the E-field is concentrated with the upper and
lower arms of the hexagonal ring along with the OSS edges.
Similar type of field distribution is observed for the highest absorption frequency
(15.52 GHz). It is evident from Figure 4(a) and (b) that for the fundamental absorption
frequencies f1 and f2, the absorption is mainly due to the LC resonance, which is

Figure 4. Surface current distribution at the top and bottom surfaces of the MA structure: (a)
and (b) at frequency 4.10, (c) and (d) at frequency 6.15 GHz, (e) and (f) at frequency
10.05 GHz, (g) and (h) at frequency 15.52 GHz, and (i) and (j) at frequency 12.45 GHz.
 6 H.B. Baskey et al.

Figure 5. Electric field distribution of the MA structure at: (a) frequency 4.10, (b) frequency
6.15 GHz, (c) frequency 10.05 GHz, (d) frequency 15.52 GHz, and (e) frequency 12.45 GHz.
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caused by the circulating current loop created at the upper and lower hexagonal ring
surfaces.
It can be observed that for the absorption frequency f3, the E-field couples the edge
of OSS arms significantly, whereas the magnetic field created by the anti-parallel
current distribution combines together for the absorption. It is also to be noted that the
inter-structure coupling is responsible for the additional absorption peaks shown in
Figures 2 and 3. The fourth fundamental absorption is primarily due to the E-field,
which is mainly concentrated at the edges of OSS. In order to study the coupling
mechanism in detail, the E-field analysis and the SCD at the additional absorption fre-
quency (12.45) GHz have been carried out as shown in the Figures 4(i), (j), and 5(e),
respectively. It can be observed from the E-field analysis that the distribution of E-field
is concentrated between the innermost ring and OSS, whereas the SCD clearly shows
the anti-parallel current distribution, together these effects are responsible for the
absorption at the frequency.
Now, in order to evaluate the matching impedance at the corresponding absorption
peaks at 4.10, 6.15, 10.05, and 15.52 GHz frequencies, the normalized input impedance
(z) has been calculated for the proposed structure using the following expression:

Figure 6. Retrieved complex impedances of the proposed four-band MA.

 Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications 7
sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ð1 þ S11 Þ2  S21 2 ð1 þ S11 Þ
z¼ ¼  (2)
ð1  S11 Þ  2 2
S21 ð1  S11 Þ
The retrieved “z” is plotted in Figure 6 by taking the condition of |S21| = 0. It can be
observed from the plot that the real part of “z” is close to unity, which is required for
the impedance matching, while the imaginary part of “z” is close to zero for all the
absorption frequencies.

4. Equivalent circuit modeling of the structure

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In order to analyze the equivalent circuit of the proposed MA, each of the individual
components of structure has been considered as the parallel LC circuit. The input impe-
dance Z of the individual structure can be written as 3(a), where R, L, and C are the
effective resistance, inductance, and capacitance of the individual structure, measured at
an angular frequency “ω.” This angular frequency is different from the frequency of
absorption ω0 defined in 3(b):
1 1 Rð1  x2 LCÞ þ x2 LCR xLð1  x2 LCÞ  x CR2
¼ þ jxC 3ðaÞ ) ReðZÞ ¼ ; ImðZÞ ¼
Z R þ jxL ð1  x2 LCÞ2 þ Rx2 C 2 ð1  x2 LCÞ2 þ Rx2 C 2
1
x0 ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 3ðbÞ
LC

The real and the imaginary part of the LHS and RHS of 3(a) are compared, and from
the known values of Z, ω, and ω0, the equivalent value of the lumped circuit parame-
ters was determined separately. The equivalent lumped parameters were determined as
L1 = 229.29pH, C1 = 6.55pF, L2 = 97.78pH, C2 = 6.85pF, L3 = 48.89pH, C3 = 5.06pF,
L4 = 40.50pF, and C4 = 2.61pF. The schematic representation of each of the corre-
sponding resonating structures is shown in Figure 7. The resistances in the equivalent
circuit show losses in the structure, which can be tuned in order to achieve the desired
absorption level and bandwidth.
Now, in order to study the mutual coupling between the individual structures,
coupling capacitance between structures 1 and 2, designated as CM12, coupling
between structures 2 and 3 (CM23), and coupling between structures 3 and 4 (CM34)
have been taken into consideration, which are represented in the Figure 8. The value of

Figure 7. The equivalent circuit model of the individual structure.

 8 H.B. Baskey et al.

the coupling capacitance has been initially calculated using the following standard
expression (4) for the asynchronously tuned coupled resonators.[27]
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u
uðL C þ L C Þ  ðL C  L C Þ2 þ 4L L C 2
t i i j j i i j j i j m
xi;j ¼ (4)
2ðLi Lj Ci Cj  Li Lj Cm2 Þ

In the above “ω,” L and C represent the resonant frequency, inductance, and capaci-
tance at ith and jth successive frequency points. The calculated values obtained using
(4) were optimized further using Advanced Design Systems, the optimized values
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obtained are CM12 = 0.672pF, CM23 = 0.583pF, and CM34 = 0.24pF.

It is to be noted that the mutual coupling has been represented as the dotted line
shown in the Figure 8, whereas input terminals are designated as AA′, BB′, and CC′,
which were used for the circuit simulation. It is also to be noted that the coupled capaci-
tance has been considered to be divided equally in series with the two resonant arms.
Now, in order to verify the proposed equivalent circuits, the response of the simu-
lated circuit model and the electromagnetic simulation has been compared, as shown in
the Figure 9(a), (b), and (c), respectively. It can be observed from these sets of figures
that the circuit model matches quite well with the results obtained from the electromag-
netic field simulator.

Figure 8. The equivalent circuit diagram for the coupling between (a) structure 1 and structure
2, (b) structures 2 and 3, and (c) structures 3 and 4.

Figure 9. (a) Comparison of the circuit simulation and the electromagnetic simulation for (a)
structures 1 and 2, (b) structures 2 and 3, and (c) structures 3 and 4.
 Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications 9

5. Experimental results
5.1. Retrieval of complex refractive index of the proposed structure
In order to study the reflection and transmission characteristics of the proposed
metamaterial structure, measurement was carried out using the free-space measurement
system (FSMS). The experimental measurement for free-space setup [28] consists of a
pair of focusing horn lens transmitting and receiving antennas, which are mounted on
an aluminum table (1.83 m × 1.83 m) covered with foam absorbers as shown in
Figure 10. The experimental setup consists of spot-focusing horn lens antennas (model
no. 857012X-950/C) manufactured by Alpha Industries, Woburn, MA (USA). The
focusing horn lens antenna consists of two equal plano-convex dielectric lenses which
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are mounted back to back in a conical horn antenna. One plano-convex lens gives an
electromagnetic plane wave, while the other lens focuses on the electromagnetic radia-
tion at the focal plane, having a focal length (f) of 30.5 cm. A specially designed sam-
ple holder is placed at the common focal plane for holding the samples and is mounted
on a micrometer-driven carriage. The measurement was carried after carrying Thru,
Reflect and Line calibration. The fabricated metamaterial structure was placed at the
sample holder position, and the transmission/reflection coefficients were measured as
shown in the Figure 10(b) and (c), respectively.
The complex refractive index of the sample as shown in Figure 11 was calculated
using the expressions.[29,30] In the retrieval process, the concept of eliminating dis-
continuity in the complex refractive index was also introduced as given in [31]. It can
be observed from the figure that the real part of the refractive index makes transition
during the corresponding resonance frequencies, whereas the imaginary part remains

Figure 10. (a) FSMS, (b) measured reflectance and transmittance magnitude, and (c) phase.
 10 H.B. Baskey et al.
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Figure 11. Retrieved (a) real (b) imaginary refractive indexes of the proposed MA structure.

positive across the whole frequency region. The concurrence of the resonances at the
corresponding frequency also supports the evidence of the absorption at those
frequencies.

5.2. Evaluation of the absorption performance of MA

In order to experimentally investigate the absorption, the MA structure was fabricated
as shown in Figure 12. The unit cells were fabricated using the printed circuit technol-
ogy over the FR-4 substrate, where 16 × 16 Nos. of unit cells were printed over the
250 × 250 mm2 substrate area having a thickness of 1 mm. These dimensions are same
as used in the electromagnetic simulations. Measurement was carried out inside the
anechoic chamber in order to reduce any unwanted reflections. Typically, the measure-
ment setup consists of a pair of horn antennas (VSWR < 2), as the transmitter and the
receiver, which are directly connected to the two ports of a vector network analyzer
(Agilent E 8364B). The fabricated sample was placed at a distance of more than
2D2/λ0 at the required frequency in order to eliminate any near field effects, where “D”
stands for the largest transverse dimensions of the antenna aperture and λ0 is the
operating wavelength.

Figure 12. (a) Fabricated MA absorber, (b) enlarged view of the absorber, and (c) experimental
arrangement inside the anechoic chamber.
 Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications 11
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Figure 13. Measured absorptivity under various incidence angles (a) TE mode and (b) TM
mode.

Reflection measurement was first calibrated using a copper sheet of the same size
as that of the actual MA sheet, after which the actual reflection from MA sheet was
measured. Finally, the difference in the reflection response between the copper sheet
and the MA sample is described in terms of absorptivity.
Figure 13(a) and (b) shows the measured absorbance for various incidence angles
with θ = 0°, 30°, and 60° for TE and TM polarizations, respectively. It can be observed
from the above sets of figures that the measurement results are in good agreement with
the simulated data corresponding to the resonant frequencies. The measured result
shows that the absorption occurs at the frequencies of 4.11, 6.17, 10.08, and
15.59 GHz with the peak absorbance values of 98.20, 99.10, 98.80, and 99.51%,
respectively. It can be observed that there is a slight deviation in the off-resonant mea-
sured values which might be due to the fabrication tolerances in the structure. However,
the measured resonance absorption remains greater than 95% for different incident
angles under both TE and TM polarizations.

6. Conclusion
An ultrathin hexagonal and octa-star-based metamaterial-based absorber has been
designed, simulated, and fabricated. The simulated electromagnetic absorption peak
shows an absorption greater than 98% which matches reasonably well with the experi-
mental data. The surface current density and the E-field analysis have also been ana-
lyzed in order to study the resonant absorption characteristics of the proposed MA
structure. The equivalent circuit parameters have been retrieved for the corresponding
absorption frequencies. Reflection–transmission measurement and retrieval of the com-
plex refractive index have been carried out in order to have a brief insight about the
proposed structure. It has been observed that the absorption for the simulated and
experimental results, for TE and TM polarizations, remains unchanged for different
incidence angles. It is noteworthy that the geometrical dimensions of the proposed MA
structure can be scaled in order to give absorption at other frequencies in the THz and
optical domains. The absorptivity at the corresponding resonance frequencies for vari-
ous incident angles shows the potential application of the proposed structure in the FSS
radomes, stealth technology, electromagnetic interference, THz imaging, etc.
 12 H.B. Baskey et al.

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