Plasma-Assisted Checkerboard Metasurface With 55.4 dB Monostatic Radar Cross-Section (RCS) Reduction

This work presents a pioneering approach that utilizes plasma as a high-loss substrate. By designing a checkerboard metasurface on the dielectric-barrier discharge (DBD) plasma substrate, the magnitude of waves reflected from the metasurface’s alternating tiles is effectively reduced. This improvement enhances tolerance to magnitude imbalance and enables more efficient destructive interference. The plasma-assisted checkerboard metasurface achieves an outstanding radar cross-section (RCS) reduction performance of up to 55.4 dB in the X-band for a plate with a <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$200 \times 200$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm2 size experimentally, surpassing all previously reported methods. Theoretical analysis, simulations, and experimental findings align well, confirming the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism. This innovative use of plasma as a substrate, rather than a standalone medium, marks a significant departure from conventional plasma-based RCS reduction methods. This suggests the potential of plasma to push boundaries and create countless opportunities across a wide range of applications that can benefit from highly lossy substrates.