Radar Cross Section measurements on the stealth metamaterial objects

Absorbing metamaterials (MM) offer the exciting possibility of near-unity absorption at specific resonance frequencies where the characteristic impedance Z(ω) is designed to match the free-space impedance and the imaginary part of the refractive index κ(ω) is as high as possible. Such materials have been realized in the form of thin, flexible metallized films of polyimide [1]. Here we apply a near-unity absorbing MM as a way to reduce the radar cross section of an object, and consider the real-life situation where the probe beam is significantly larger than the MM film and the object under investigation. We use a terahertz radar cross section (RCS) setup [2] for the characterization of the RCS of a real object covered with an absorbing MM film designed for high absorption in the THz frequency range, specifically at 0.8 THz. The results are in a form of 2D maps (sinograms), from which the RCS is calculated for specific frequencies within the bandwidth of the THz signal. We observe a significant reduction of the RCS at the resonance frequency of the MM absorber (0.82 THz) compared to the off-resonance RCS (here 0.4 THz).