Electromagnetic camouflage through a multi-layer metamaterial structure

Abstract

Stealth technology plays an important role in the security of our country. In order to gain information on an enemy we must be able to conduct surveillance without being detected. This means that we need to continue to develop stealth technology in order to keep up with the modern devices in object detection and tracking. There are two main methods used for object detection and tracking, which are IR and Radar detection. The IR method detects infrared band frequencies produced by the object and the Radar method relies on microwave band frequencies reflecting off of the object. In order to create stealth against the IR detectors we need to decrease the amount of IR radiation that is emitted from the object. This requires materials that have very low emissivity and therefore high reflectivity. This creates a problem for radar stealth though. For radar stealth the object needs low reflectivity and high absorptivity so that the radar wave is not reflected back. This makes it difficult to create a stealth material that is effective for both IR and Radar detection systems. The solution may be found in the creation of engineered metamaterials, which have a unique property of negative refractive index, unlike materials that are found in nature. My research is related to creating a multi-layer structure comprised of different metamaterials. These meta-structures will act like filters for different frequencies and aid in the creation of IR and Radar stealth structures that are extremely important for electromagnetic camouflage.