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Bio-inspired Photonic Masquerade with Perturbative Metasurfaces
Kun Huang1,2, Dong Zhao1, Febiana Tjiptoharsono2
1Department of Optics and Optical Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
ACS Nano
|June 2, 2020
Summary
This study introduces optical masquerade, a novel camouflage technique inspired by nature. It uses perturbative metasurfaces to disguise an object as another unrelated one, enabling detection without recognition under wide-angle, broadband visible light illumination.
Area of Science:
- Optics and Photonics
- Materials Science
- Metamaterials
Background:
- Camouflage is vital for survival and has inspired technologies like optical cloaking.
- Current crypsis-based camouflage struggles with wide viewing angles and broadband operation.
- Nature's 'masquerade' strategy, where organisms are detected but not recognized, offers an alternative approach.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate an optical masquerade technique using perturbative metasurfaces.
- To achieve camouflage that allows detection but prevents recognition under specific conditions.
- To explore the potential applications of this novel camouflage method.
Main Methods:
- Design and fabrication of dielectric metastructures with nanodisk arrays.
- Utilizing perturbation theory to predict and control electromagnetic resonances.
- Testing the metasurfaces under oblique (±69°) visible light illumination with a ~160 nm bandwidth.
Main Results:
- Successfully camouflaged a pistol-shaped object into an unrelated one.
- Achieved masquerade under oblique illumination and broadband visible light.
- Demonstrated suppression of electromagnetic resonances to mimic target intensity and phase.
Conclusions:
- Optical masquerade is a viable camouflage strategy distinct from crypsis.
- This technique is invasive, environment-independent, object-unlimited, and material-extendable.
- Potential applications include optical security, anticounterfeiting, and data encoding.
