A novel metamaterial with large microwave absorption and sound insulation

Abstract

Metamaterials provide a new route to manipulate electromagnetic waves, sound waves, elastic waves and so on. To date, it is still difficult to implement simultaneous control of multi-physical fields within single metamaterial structure. In order to tackle this challenge, we investigate the possibilities of designing a transparent metamaterial with excellent sound blocking and electromagnetic absorption properties. The metamaterial is constituted by periodic arrays of sub-wavelength ITO resonators attached to top and bottom membranes. Such configuration enables large microwave absorption owing to the ohmic loss from the meta-atoms under the illumination of plane waves, and in the meantime blocks the incident sound significantly based on the multi-resonance caused by the coupled membrane, thereby offering a promising access to bi-functional applications in the future.