Conductive rubber based flexible metamaterial

Abstract

In this letter, we present experimentally flexible split ring resonator (SRR) metamaterial made of conductive rubber. Different from most conventional flexible metamaterials whose mechanical advantage relied on ultrathin soft substrates, compliance property of conductive rubber based SRR results from its intrinsic property. Experimental results show that unique property of negative effective parameter is preserved by conductive rubber based SRR. Moreover, strain property of conductive rubber not only allows SRR to be compliant but also provides extra means to frequency tunability. When SRR is deformed along its symmetric axis, an extra capacitance is formed by gap-bearing side, resulting in a decreasing resonance trend with enhanced deformation.