Polarization insensitive and omnidirectional broadband near perfect planar metamaterial absorber in the near infrared regime

We present the design, characterization, and experimental demonstration of a polarization insensitive and omnidirectional broadband near perfect planar metamaterial absorber (MA) in the near infrared regime, which does not need to stack multilayer composite structures. Experimental result shows that greater than 80% absorption is obtained across a wavelength range of 0.41 mu m, which is in reasonable agreement with the simulation. The electromagnetic response of the MA is theoretically investigated. The broadband planar MA is polarization insensitive and the absorption remains high even at large incident angles. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3670333]