Use of conjugate dielectric and metamaterial slabs as radomes

An interesting application of left-handed metamaterials is proposed and numerically verified. Specifically, a structure consisting of a conventional dielectric slab adjacent to a metamaterial slab of the same width but of opposite material characteristics, is used as a radome. The behaviour of the structure for normal as well as for oblique incidence is considered. The results are satisfactory in both cases. It is shown that cylindrical structures similar to the aforementioned straight structures could also be used as radomes. However, the behaviour of the structure is non-reciprocal for incoming and outgoing waves. The dispersive finite-difference time-domain method is applied to study all the structures and the numerical results verify that the straight conjugate slabs are transparent in normal incidence and reduce the reflections for oblique incidence, which are the desirable characteristics for a radome