Multifunctional Metamaterials Through Liquid Metal-Controlled Hierarchical Microchannel Structures

In this letter, a multifunctional reconfigurable metamaterial (MRMM), featuring three operating states is introduced based on the multi-scale integration of hierarchical microchannel configuration and liquid metal (LM) regulation strategy. The MRMM can flexibly switch among full-band transmission from 8 GHz to 15 GHz with an insertion loss (IL) of 1 dB, second-order bandpass from 11.64 GHz to 13.72 GHz (also featuring an IL of 1 dB), and full-band shielding from 8 GHz to 15 GHz with a reflection loss (RL) of −15 dB, while exhibiting reliable polarization and angular stability. Subsequently, the physical mechanisms of the MRMM at different states are analyzed using the equivalent circuit method (ECM). Finally, a physical sample of the proposed design is manufactured and tested to validate the effectiveness of simulation results. Both numerical simulations and experimental verifications confirm the wide switchable bandwidth and multistate characteristics of the MRMM.