Recent progress in perfect absorbers by utilizing metamaterials

Abstract

This paper reviews recent progress in perfect absorbers of electromagnetic waves that utilize metamaterials (MMs). Various numerical techniques that are inevitable for the research on MMs, along with their pros and cons, are commented on and discussed. Abandoning the conventional periodic-boundary conditions is crucial for understanding the discrepancy between simulation and experiments for certain MMs. Broadband perfect absorption can be realized by using multiple resonances and/or multiple units with different sizes in a unit cell, or by utilizing bad Q-factors by incorporating the electrically resistive components, in addition to the ordinary metallic elements. The classical analogue of electromagnetically-induced transparency can be utilized to realize perfect absorption, by employing either structural asymmetry, or near-field interactions. Perspectives and suggestions for further study are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Metamaterials
• computational-electromagnetics methods
• non-periodic boundary conditions
• perfect absorbers
• broadband absorbers
• classical analogue of electromagnetically-induced transparency

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the NRF funded by MSIT, Korea (Nos. 2017R1A2B4003916 and NRF-2018R1A6A3A11049612).

Notes on contributors

J. Y. Rhee

Joo Yull Rhee received his BS from Seoul National University in 1978, MS from KAIST in 1980, and PhD from Iowa State University in 1992, all in physics. He is currently a Professor at Sungkyunkwan University. He served as Editor-in-Chief of the J. Korean Phys. Soc. from 2009 to 2010. His current research interests include the first-principles electronic-structure calculations of mostly magnetic materials and the optical properties of metamaterials. He has published over 200 scientific journal papers in the relevant fields.

Y. J. Kim

Young Ju Kim studied received PhD in physics from Hanyang University in 2018. His research interests are in the field of metamaterials, and include the study of metamaterial perfect absorbers, as well as the utilization of metamaterials for superlens and electromagnetically-induced transparency.

C. Yi

Changhyun Yi received PhD from Sungkyunkwan University in 2018. His research interests comprise the theoretical and calculational studies on metamaterials.

J. S. Hwang

Ji Sub Hwang received PhD in physics from Hanyang University in 2017. His research interests include the study of the utilization of metamaterials for electromagnetically-induced transparency, and metamaterial perfect absorbers.

Y. P. Lee

YoungPak Lee received his BS from Seoul National Univ., Korea, in 1975, and PhD in physics in 1987 from Iowa State Univ., USA. After a varied career in the USA, Japan, Germany, and Korea, he has been a Distinguished Prof., Hanyang Univ, Korea, and is a Fudan Distinguished Prof., Fudan University, China. He is a former President of the Korean Physical Society and He is also a Member of the Korea Academy of Science and Technology. He has published over 700 SCI papers with an h-index of 59 as of Sep. 2019. His current investigations include many aspects of metamaterials and spin-photonic crystals.