Analysis of metamaterial absorber in normal and oblique incidence by using interference theory

Metamaterial absorber (MMA), which is a kind of thin electromagnetic absorber consisting of sub-wavelength metamaterial resonators and can exhibit near-perfect absorption characteristics, has been widely investigated in recently years. The impedance matching theory was proposed to analyze the configuration of MMA in most literatures. Such theory, however, may not suitable to analyze the interactions of metamaterial resonators and the ground plane. The interference theory, on another hand, can play effective approach for this kind of problem presented in recent studies, whereas little attention has been paid on the oblique incidence conditions. In this paper, we firstly extend the interference theory model to make it applicable for oblique incident waves and analyze MMA using the extended interference theory model. Secondly, we further explore the sufficient condition for the maximum absorptivity at both normal and oblique incidence cases. Thirdly, with the sufficient condition, we can obtain the absorbing frequency directly if the thickness of MMA is given. These theoretical results have significant effects on the design and analyze of MMA. And lastly, we point out that absorptivity is not absolutely insensitive to the incidence angle in TM mode as what previous study claims, but insensitive when the dielectric slab is high loss, which can also be explained by interference theory. (C) 2013 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.