Impact of resonator geometry and its coupling with ground plane on ultrathin metamaterial perfect absorbers

We investigate the impact of resonator geometry and its coupling with ground plane on the performance of metamaterial perfect absorbers. Using a cross-resonator as an example structure, we find that the absorber thickness can be further reduced through modifying the geometric dimensions of the resonators. Numerical simulations and theoretical calculations reveal that destructive interference of multiple reflections is responsible for the near-unity absorption. The near-field coupling between the resonator array and ground plane can be significant. When this coupling is taken into account, the theoretical results calculated using the interference model are in excellent agreement with experiments and numerical simulations. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4749823]