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This paper aims to provide a technical insight into a selection of recent developments of sensor based on metamaterials.

Following a short introduction, this first part discusses sensors based on acoustic metamaterials. It then briefly considers negative index materials and split ring resonators and provides examples of sensors based on metamaterials which interact with electromagnetic radiation in the microwave, terahertz and infra-red regions. Finally, brief concluding comments are drawn.

Since their discovery at around the turn of the century, metamaterials have been studied widely by the research community. A diverse range of sensors and imaging devices have since been developed which exploit the unique properties of these materials and respond to physical, chemical and biological variables. Many exhibit characteristics and capabilities with the potential to overcome the limitations of conventional devices.

This provides details of a range of recently developed sensors based on the newly discovered families of metamaterials.

This paper aims to focus on research work related to metamaterial-based sensors for material characterization that have been developed for past ten years. A decade of research on metamaterial for sensing application has led to the advancement of compact and improved sensors.

In this study, relevant research papers on metamaterial sensors for material characterization published in reputed journals during the period 2007-2018 were reviewed, particularly focusing on shape, size and nature of materials characterized. Each sensor with its design and performance parameters have been summarized and discussed here.

As metamaterial structures are excited by electromagnetic wave interaction, sensing application throughout electromagnetic spectrum is possible. Recent advancement in fabrication techniques and improvement in metamaterial structures have led to the development of compact, label free and reversible sensors with high sensitivity.

The paper provides useful information on the development of metamaterial sensors for material characterization.

This paper aims to study the design and characterization of a 3D printed tetrakaidecahedron cell-based acoustic metamaterial. At present, the mitigation of low-frequency noise involves the utilization of spatially demanding materials for the absorption of sound. These materials lack the ability for targeted frequency control adjustments. Hence, there is a requirement for an approach that can effectively manage low-frequency noise using lightweight and durable materials.

The CAD model was created in SolidWorks and was manufactured using the Digital Light Processing (DLP) 3D printing technique. Experimental study and numerical simulations examined the metamaterial’s acoustic absorption. An impedance tube with two microphones was used to determine the absorption coefficient of the metamaterial. The simulations were run in a thermoviscous module.

The testing of acoustic samples highlighted the effects of geometric parameters on acoustic performance. Increment of the strut length by 0.4 mm led to a shift in response to a lower frequency by 500 Hz. Peak absorption rose from 0.461 to 0.690 as the strut diameter was increased from 0.6 to 1.0 mm. Increasing the number of cells from 8 to 20 increased the absorption coefficient and lowered the response frequency.

DLP 3D printing technique was used to successfully manufacture tetrakaidecahedron-based acoustic metamaterial samples. A novel study on the effects of geometric parameters of tetrakaidecahedron cell-based acoustic metamaterial on the acoustic absorption coefficient was conducted, which seemed to be missing in the literature.

Metamaterials have been utilised in several exciting configurations such as tuneable reflectors, reconfigurable absorbers, and programmable modulators, triggering intense research efforts. Among them, the ability to steer the radiation pattern of a single antenna component by employing a metamaterial-based superstrate is considered crucial for the development of advanced beam forming applications. The purpose of this paper is to introduce an adjustable omega-inspired metamaterial module to facilitate the design of beam steering implementations, involving beam forming capabilities, as well.

A variable capacitive diode is properly positioned at the novel omega element, hence advancing the controllability of its electromagnetic performance and circumventing the requirement of extra bias networks. When an array of these particles is placed in front of an antenna, several negative refractive index profiles can be realised, allowing the manipulation of the beam direction. Furthermore, a pyramidal horn antenna, loaded with this complex medium superstrate, is thoroughly investigated in terms of programmable beam steering and beam forming attributes. Several numerical data derived via the finite element method unveil the merits of the featured configuration.

The proposed structure allows programmability of the electromagnetic behaviour, but also circumvents the necessity of complicated bias networks, while minimising interference. The numerical assessment of a standard gain pyramidal horn antenna, associated to the featured metamaterial superstrate, sufficiently proves the controllable beam steering and beam forming attributes. Several parametric studies clarify the principal characteristics of the proposed setup, facilitating the design of high-end systems.

Development of tuneable metamaterial, which utilises variable capacitive diodes to enable controllability. Incorporation of reconfigurable metamaterials into antenna technology. Design of a pyramidal horn antenna, loaded with a complex medium superstrate exhibiting programmable beam steering and beam forming attributes. The proposed device circumvents the necessity of complicated bias networks, while minimising interference.

The purpose of this paper is to study the microwave behaviour of effective magnetic permeability for two‐component ferrite like metamaterial medium in the direction of a biasing magnetic field. The metamaterial medium is presented as an infinite host dielectric material (air) with periodically embedded ferric cylindrical and spherical inclusions saturated with an external dc magnetic field. The study is based on the effective medium theory developed for polycrystalline metaferrites. The simulations show that the presented metamaterial can exhibit the ultra‐low refractive index (ULI) phenomenon and the phenomenon of negative magnetic permeability for the case of microwave propagation in the direction of bias.

The obtained results are based on the wave long approximation of permeability tensor of the presented metamaterial media obtained earlier by the first author. Using the standard approach, the authors apply the above expressions for the microwave propagation in direction of biasing dc magnetic field considering different polarization of the incident microwave.

The considered artificial material media can become either material with a ULI or with negative values in the GHz frequencies.

The paper is concerned with part of the theory of a new generation of artificial ferrites.

The purpose of this paper is to show how metamaterials with extreme values of permittivity and permeability, may be effectively used to design artificial magnetic conductors (AMC) at a given frequency. In particular, this paper theoretically determines, for the different polarizations of the incidence field, the conditions under which metamaterials can behave as an AMC.

In order to find out the required values of the constitutive parameters, this paper has done a theoretical analysis based on the transmission-line theory. The obtained analytical reflection coefficient has been particularized for the different possible polarizations of the incidence field in order to find the constitutive parameters values that this paper needs for the AMC behavior.

Depending on the polarization of the field, it is shown that different values of the constitutive parameters are needed to get AMCs. In particular, it is shown that in the case of TEM and TE polarizations, a large value of the permeability is enough to obtain an AMC boundary condition. In the case of the TM polarization, instead, the AMC boundary condition is effectively achieved by using a material with vanishing permittivity. The role of the permittivity in the three polarizations is discussed. Finally, possible implementations and applications at microwave and optical frequencies are presented.

The idea of using miniaturized inclusions to obtain AMCs is not completely new. However, to the authors' best knowledge, a complete and rigorous theoretical analysis showing the capabilities and the limits of this approach has not yet been presented in the open technical literature.

The paper's purpose is to deduce additional information on the accuracy of finite element simulators for electromagnetic problems involving effective models of metamaterials.

The objective is achieved by solving, with a well known commercial simulator, many different configurations of two types of electromagnetic problems: a free‐space scattering by a sphere and a waveguide discontinuity problem. Such problems are known to be able to point out the difficulties of numerical simulators. On the other hand, they are representative of two important classes of problems and can provide indications on what can happen in other cases.

This analysis confirms that the numerical errors can be important just in close proximity of the interface between metamaterials and standard media. Small values of loss tangents can be sufficient to obtain very accurate results. Adaptive mesh generators should not be used in the presence of negligible values of the loss tangents. For more uniform meshes the results are satisfactory, with sufficiently fine meshes. When the magnitude of the real parts of the effective dielectric permittivity of a metamaterial and of the adjacent standard media are significantly different, the accuracy is satisfactory in any case.

The results are obtained by considering problems of two types. There is no guarantee that all the deductions apply to other models.

To design practical devices involving metamaterials reliable electromagnetic simulators are necessary. The reported results seem to indicate that it is possible to adopt some countermeasures against the possible lack of accuracy of finite element simulators in the presence of effective models of metamaterials.

For the first time, to the best of authors' knowledge, an extensive analysis on the accuracy of finite element simulators for critical problems involving metamaterials has been carried out. Some simple suggestions to improve their reliability in these cases are provided.

The purpose of this paper is to developing a kind of acoustic metamaterial with wide frequency band especially in low frequency region. At the same time, its the tunability of sound insulation frequency is achieved.

A three-dimensional (3D) acoustic metamaterial consisting of rigid frame, spherical attachment and thin film is proposed. The material parameters and the effect of the attachment hole on the forbidden band are investigated by finite element simulation. The sound insulation effect of the structure is validated by the combination of simulation and experiment.

The results show that the elastic modulus of the structural material determines the initial frequency of the forbidden band of the proposed 3D acoustic metamaterials. The lower the elastic modulus of the structural material, the lower the initial frequency of the forbidden band. The material parameters of the frame mainly affect the initial frequency of the first forbidden band, and the material parameters of the attachment will affect both the initial and termination frequency of the first forbidden band. Holes in the attachments reduce the band gap width. The characteristic curve moves down with the increase of subtracted mass.

The findings may greatly benefit the application of the acoustic metamaterials in the fields of sound insulation and noise reduction.

This acoustic metamaterial structure has excellent sound insulation performance. At the same time, the single cell structure can be assembled into any shape. The structure can achieve sound selective filtering and combination control.

The “chiralisation” of Euclidean polygonal tessellations is a novel, recent method which has been used to design new auxetic metamaterials with complex topologies and improved geometric versatility over traditional chiral honeycombs. This paper aims to design and manufacture chiral honeycombs representative of four distinct classes of 2D Euclidean tessellations with hexagonal rotational symmetry using fused-deposition additive manufacturing and experimentally analysed the mechanical properties and failure modes of these metamaterials.

Finite Element simulations were also used to study the high-strain compressive performance of these systems under both periodic boundary conditions and realistic, finite conditions. Experimental uniaxial compressive loading tests were applied to additively manufactured prototypes and digital image correlation was used to measure the Poisson’s ratio and analyse the deformation behaviour of these systems.

The results obtained demonstrate that these systems have the ability to exhibit a wide range of Poisson’s ratios (positive, quasi-zero and negative values) and stiffnesses as well as unusual failure modes characterised by a sequential layer-by-layer collapse of specific, non-adjacent ligaments. These findings provide useful insights on the mechanical properties and deformation behaviours of this new class of metamaterials and indicate that these chiral honeycombs could potentially possess anomalous characteristics which are not commonly found in traditional chiral metamaterials based on regular monohedral tilings.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the authors have analysed for the first time the high strain behaviour and failure modes of chiral metamaterials based on Euclidean multi-polygonal tessellations.

A novel and simple six-band metamaterial absorber is proposed in the terahertz region, which is composed of an I-shaped absorber and circular ring with four gaps and a continuous metal ground plane separated by only 0.125 mm polyimide dielectric substrate. Initially, I-shaped resonator gives three bands at 0.4, 0.468 and 0.4928 THz with the absorptivity of 99.3%, 97.9% and 99.1%, respectively. The purpose of this paper is to improve the number of bands, for which the authors added the circular ring with four gaps, so the simulated metamaterial absorber exhibited six absorption peaks at 0.3392, 0.3528, 0.3968, 0.4676, 0.4768 and 0.492 THz, with the absorption rate of 91.4%, 94.2%, 94.9%, 90.3%, 77.5% and 97.4%, respectively. The surface current distribution and angle independence are explained for all the six frequencies which are used to analyze the absorption mechanism clearly. Structure maximum uses the squares and circles, so it will make the fabrication easy. The multiband absorbers obtained here have potential applications in many engineering technology, thermal radiation, material detection and imaging and optoelectronic areas.

This paper presents the design of the six-band metamaterial absorber which is from the I-shaped resonator and circular ring with four gaps and the metallic ground plane separated by the 0.125 polyimide dielectric substrate. The absorber exhibited six absorption peaks at 0.3392, 0.3528, 0.3968, 0.4676, 0.4768 and 0.492 THz, with the absorption rate of 91.4%, 94.2%, 94.9%, 90.3%, 77.5% and 97.4%, respectively. From the fabrication point of view, the proposed six-band metamaterial absorber has a very simple geometrical structure, and it is very easy to be fabricated.

The authors present a new and simple design of six-band absorber based on an I-shaped absorber and circular ring with four gaps and a metallic ground plane separated by a polyimide layer having the thickness of 0.125 mm. Six different resonance absorption peaks are found at 0.3392, 0.3528, 0.3968, 0.4676 , 0.4768 and 0.492 THz. Surface current distribution and angle independence plot have been studied to understand the absorption behavior of the designed terahertz metamaterial absorber.

The multiband absorbers obtained here have potential applications in many engineering technology, thermal radiation, material detection, security, sensors, imaging and optoelectronic areas.