Selective thermal emission and infrared camouflage based on layered media

Infrared camouflage based on artificial thermal metasurfaces has recently attracted significant attention. By eliminating thermal radiation differences between the object and the background, it is possible to hide a given object from infrared detection. Infrared camouflage is an important element that increases the survivability of aircraft and missiles, by reducing target susceptibility to infrared guided threats. Herein, a simple and practicable design is theoretically presented based on a multilayer film for infrared stealth, with distinctive advantages of scalability, flexible fabrication, and structural simplicity. The multilayer medium consists of silicon substrate, carbon layer and zinc sulfide film, the optical properties of which are determined by transfer matrix method. By locally changing the thickness of the coating film, the spatial tunability and continuity in thermal emission are demonstrated. A continuous change of emissive power is further obtained and consequently implemented to achieve thermal camouflage functionality. In addition, other functionalities, like thermal illusion and thermal coding, are demonstrated by thickness-engineered multilayer films.(c) 2022 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Infrared camouflage based on artificial thermal metasurfaces has become a hot topic recently. It aims to hide specific objects from infrared detection by eliminating the thermal radiation differences between the object and the background. This article presents a simple and practicable design for infrared stealth using a multilayer film, which offers advantages in scalability, flexible fabrication, and structural simplicity. The multilayer medium consists of a silicon substrate, carbon layer, and zinc sulfide film, and its optical properties are determined using the transfer matrix method. By locally changing the thickness of the coating film, the spatial tunability and continuity in thermal emission are demonstrated, achieving thermal camouflage functionality. Moreover, thickness-engineered multilayer films also demonstrate other functionalities such as thermal illusion and thermal coding.