Rotatable Rod-Type Three-Mode Switchable Metamaterial Based on Structural Transformation

The design of switchable metamaterials is urgent to cope with complex application environments. In this paper, a switchable metamaterial based on structural transformation was proposed. Its unit cell consists of two rotatable rectangular rods that are stacked vertically. The conductive material Indium tin oxide (ITO) is etched on the surface of the rods to manipulate electromagnetic (EM) waves. The simulation results show that the metamaterial exhibits broadband absorption performance when the angle θ between the two rods is 90°, with reflectivity below −10dB from 5 to 16.4 GHz. When the angle θ equals 45°, the metamaterial exhibits both absorption and polarization conversion properties at 9.3 GHz simultaneously. When the angle θ equals zero, which means complete overlap, the metamaterial exhibits the property of total EM wave reflection at all frequencies. This work provides a novel route to achieve three-mode switchable metamaterial by structural transformation, which is expected to be applied in practice in the future.