One-way electromagnetic energy absorber base on composite metamaterial slabs

This paper reports a one-way electromagnetic (EM) energy absorber based on a composite metamaterial structure. The proposed one-way absorber is composed of different metamaterial slabs with a total thickness of only one-tenth the operating wavelength. The energy of linearly polarized EM waves can propagate through such absorber along one direction, but be fully absorbed when propagating along the opposite direction. A proto-type example is designed and the performance of the energy transmission and absorption efficiency has been well verified through the full-wave simulation at microwave frequency. The proposed concept could find application in designing novel nonreciprocal EM devices and polarization control devices.