Wide-angle infrared absorber based on negative index plasmonic metamaterial

A metamaterials-based approach to making a wide-angle absorber of infrared radiation is described. The technique is based on an anisotropic Perfectly Impedance Matched Negative Index Material (PIMNIM). It is shown analytically that a sub-wavelength in all three dimensions PIMNIM enables absorption of close to 100% for incidence angles up to $45\deg$ to the normal. A specific implementation of such frequency-tunable PIMNIM based on plasmonic metamaterials is presented. Applications to infrared imaging and coherent thermal sources are described.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev.