Broadband Microwave Absorption by Logarithmic Spiral Metasurface

Metamaterials have enabled the design of electromagnetic wave absorbers with unprecedented performance. Conventional metamaterial absorbers usually employ multiple structure components in one unit cell to achieve broadband absorption. Here, a simple metasurface microwave absorber is proposed that has one metal-backed logarithmic spiral resonator as the unit cell. It can absorb >95% of normally incident microwave energy within the frequency range of 6 GHz–37 GHz as a result of the scale invariant geometry and the Fabry-Perot-type resonances of the resonator. The thickness of the metasurface is 5 mm and approaches the Rozanov limit of an optimal absorber. The physics underlying the broadband absorption is discussed. A comparison with Archimedean spiral metasurface is conducted to uncover the crucial role of scale invariance. The study opens a new direction of electromagnetic wave absorption by employing the scale invariance of Maxwell equations and may also be applied to the absorption of other classical waves such as sound.