Multifunctional Metamaterial Microwave Blackbody with High‐Frequency Compatibility, Temperature Insensitivity, and Structural Scalability
Yao Li, Shixiang Zhou, Longkai Pan, Hui Mei, Yang Li, Konstantinos G. Dassios, Paolo Colombo, Laifei Cheng, Litong Zhang
Abstract
Abstract Compared with optical black, few attempts have focused on achieving broadband microwave blackbodies. In this study, all‐ceramic metamaterial microwave blackbodies are created by integrating a graded Gyroid shellular (GGS) metastructure design with additive manufacturing of polymer‐derived SiOC (PDCs‐SiOC) ceramics encapsulated by Si 3 N 4 (SiOC@Si 3 N 4 ). Hardly influenced by the destructive interference effect, as‐fabricated GGS‐structured SiOC@Si 3 N 4 microwave blackbodies demonstrate a broadband microwave absorption (MA) above 83.6% (91.3% on average) across the entire X‐Ku band and encompassing higher frequencies above 18 GHz as well, together with the temperature insensitivity from room temperature to 500 °C. Based on the flexible electromagnetic tunability of PDCs‐SiOC, exceptional structural scalability is experimentally validated for metal‐doped modified CuSiOC and CoSiOC substrates with the same GGS metastructures, retaining high‐efficiency MA capability. Furthermore, attachment of perfectly reflecting metal backplanes further enhances the MA performance, with an ultrawide MA exceeding 67.9% (89.1% on average) achievable at 2.95–18 GHz for CoSiOC substrate. Meanwhile, the GGS‐structured SiOC@Si 3 N 4 metamaterials possess additional multifunctional properties, such as good noise reduction performance as well as ultrahigh wear resistance. As a proof of concept, this study provides important guidance on achieving multifunctional coupling broadband MA characteristics by fully tapping the application potential of existing materials.