Design and realization of one-dimensional double hetero-structure photonic crystals for infrared-radar stealth-compatible materials applications

In this paper, a new type one-dimensional (1D) double hetero-structure composite photonic crystal (CPC) for infrared-radar stealth-compatible materials applications was proposed and studied numerically and experimentally. First, based on transfer matrix method of thin-film optical theory, the propagation characteristics of the proposed structure comprising a stack of different alternating micrometer-thick layers of germanium and zinc sulfide were investigated numerically. Calculation results exhibit that this 1D single hetero-structure PC could achieve a flat high reflectivity gradually with increasing the number of the alternating media layers in a single broadband range. Then, based on principles of distributed Bragg reflector micro-cavity, a 1D double hetero-structure CPC comprising four PCs with thickness of 0.797 mu m, 0.592 mu m, 1.480 mu m, and 2.114 mu m, respectively, was proposed. Calculation results exhibit that this CPC could achieve a high reflectance of greater than 0.99 in the wavelength ranges of 3-5 mu m and 8-14 mu m and agreed well with experiment. Further experiments exhibit that the infrared emissivity of the proposed CPC is as low as 0.073 and 0.042 in the wavelength ranges of 3-5 mu m and 8-12 mu m, respectively. In addition, the proposed CPC can be used to construct infrared-radar stealth-compatible materials due to its high transmittance in radar wave band. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.