Towards Experimental Perfectly-Matched Layers With Ultra-Thin Metamaterial Surfaces

In this paper, we modify uniaxial perfectly matched layer to an entirely passive medium and demonstrate its experimental realization using a deep sub-wavelength metamaterial surface. The relative permittivity and permeability of the surface are matched, mostly imaginary-valued, and far greater than unity. These conditions allow the impedance of the metamaterial surface to be completely matched to air, and produce an extremely large internal dissipation, resulting in a 99.97% power absorption at normal incidence and within a layer thickness of about 1/40 of the free space wavelength.