Wideband metamaterial absorbing antenna ground planes for 21cm radio cosmology applications

摘要

This paper presents the design of an absorbing ground plane as a solution for ground reflections in 21cm radio cosmology applications. The proposed ground plane is formed by a metamaterial, specially designed to achieve high absorption at a large frequency band. The metamaterial consists of a periodic array of hybrid unit cells, that are based on split ring resonators. The frequency band under investigation is 50 MHz to 200 MHz. The proposed absorber covers 77% of the band, achieving more than 95% of absorption.