Research on microwave metamaterials at the DLR

Abstract

Metamaterials (MTMs) in electromagnetics are artificial materials with engineered dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability. They consist of a large number of suitably chosen electrically small resonant inclusions in a substrate material, arranged in an array with lattice constants that are much smaller than the wavelength of the incident radiation. On the scale of the wavelength, the resulting composition can be seen as a homogeneous material with effective constitutive parameters which can take any desired values, including those not encountered in the nature, e.g. negative. Metamaterials have the potential for becoming an enabling technology for a great variety of applications at microwave, terahertz, infrared and optical frequencies, including MTM-coatings and invisibility cloaks for radar signature controlling and antenna interference reduction, super- and hyper-lenses for imaging beyond the diffraction limit, flat lenses and reflectors for reducing weight and improving aerodynamic properties of large sensor systems. The talk describes current research activities on electromagnetic MTMs in DLR Microwaves and Radar Institute and plans for the future work. The goals of participating in the workshop are identification of areas of common interest, exchange of experience and evaluation of possibilities of future cooperation with Israeli partners.