Bioinspired multiple-degrees-of-freedom responsive metasurface by high-entropy-alloy ribbons with hierarchical nanostructures for electromagnetic wave absorption

The compound eyes of the dragonfly, Pantala flavescens Fabricius, are covered by micro-scaled ocelli capable of sensing polarized light, an attractive property for radar stealth and counterreconnaissance. In this work, we fabricated biomimetic electromagnetic wave absorption materials (EAMs) by analyzing the covert information identifications of biological systems and focusing on the design of metastructures and microstructures. Several bionic metasurfaces with anisotropic double-V meta atoms made up of (FeCoNiSi8.9Al8.9)C0.2 high-entropy-alloy (HEA) ribbons for multiple-degrees-of-freedom recognition and broadband absorption are presented. The covert phase, amplitude, and angular momentum of electromagnetic waves were controlled and recognized as information by manipulating the rotation angle θ of meta atoms. A vortex wave with a topological charge of 1 was generated to recognize linearly polarization and left- and right-handed circular polarization. In addition, the polarization conversion enhanced absorption. The hierarchical nanostructures of HEA ribbons give rise to suitable electromagnetic loss and a superior impedance match. Finally, inspired by the structure of compound eyes, the designed multilayer metamaterials realized effective absorption (reflection loss (RL) ≤ − 10 dB) within the 4.5–18 GHz regime under 2.8 mm thickness. These materials provide evidence for a new way for integrated EAMs and metamaterials.