Flexible and high-temperature-resistant composite checkerboard metasurface for multiband synergistic camouflage

With the advancement of modern detection equipment, the difficulty of multispectral camouflage has increased significantly. Achieving multiband compatible stealth still poses a significant challenge. This study designed and fabricated a composite chessboard-structured metasurface (CCSM) comprising multilayer films and chessboard-like configurations, achieving multispectral cooperative camouflage across visible light, infrared, and broadband lidar spectra. To overcome the limitations of traditional single-band camouflage, the CCSM design employs a multilayer film to precisely regulate visible light reflection and infrared radiation, and a checkerboard structure to suppress wideband lidar reflection. The multilayer structure enables three key performances: the color of the sample in the visible light band can be adjusted by changing ZnS thickness; it sharply curtails the target’s infrared signature with average emissivity of 0.27 (3–5 μm) and 0.25 (8–14 μm); and it exhibits an average emissivity of 0.68 in the non-atmospheric window of 5–8 μm, thereby enabling effective radiative cooling. The chessboard configuration enables broadband low specular reflection at 8–14 μm ( R 8−14 μm =0.04), meeting the low-return demand for lidar stealth. Furthermore, this structure can be fabricated on flexible substrates, offering advantages including structural simplicity and a straightforward manufacturing process. This advancement provides novel pathways for the development of advanced multispectral camouflage technologies.