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With the rapid development of multispectral detection, infrared and visible compatible camouflage becomes necessary. Metafilms with dielectric/metal/dielectric (D/M/D) structures can be highly transparent in visible band (380 ∼ 780 nm) and highly reflective in infrared atmospheric windows (3 ∼ 5 μ m, 8 ∼ 14 μ m). The metafilm can be deposited on the equipment surface, and the high visible transmittance can make the original camouflage coating continue to achieve visible camouflage, while the low infrared emissivity can inhibit the infrared signal to achieve infrared camouflage. Compatible camouflage is urgently needed by high-temperature targets such as exhaust pipes and engine cabins. Therefore, the thermal stability of multilayer structure is very important. In this study, a D/M/D-structured metafilm with improved thermal performance is proposed. Al-doped zinc oxide (AZO) is selected as the material of the dielectric layers due to good thermal stability, and high visible transmittance is realized through the mechanism of admittance matching. Ag is selected as the material of the metal layer to increase infrared reflectance. The metafilm with the structure of AZO/Ag/AZO is rigorously designed and fabricated. The results from Fourier transform infrared spectrometer and spectrophotometer show that the integrated visible transmittance and infrared emissivity at room temperature is higher than 0.87 and lower than 0.05, respectively. The camouflage performance of the metafilm is demonstrated on a flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. The camouflage performance of metafilm samples at 20 ∼ 140 °C is tested on a model cabin. The metafilm does not affect the original camouflage coating, so it can achieve visible camouflage. The radiation temperature of the metafilm is approximately 80 °C lower than that of the control surface, and the infrared signature is significantly attenuated. In order to further investigate the thermal stability and thermal fatigue resistance of the metafilm, metafilm deposited on quartz substrate is continuously heated and periodically heated at different temperatures. It is found that the sample can withstand continuous heating at 450 °C for 4 h or repeated heating for 20 cycles. SEM (scanning electron microscope) and EDS (energy dispersive spectrometer) scanning shows that if heated at higher temperature or for more cycles, the AZO layer becomes blocky, and the proportion of Ag and O changes significantly. This leads to the decrease of visible transmittance and the increase of infrared emissivity of samples.

Color change metafilm is promising for the color printing of displays and imaging. A metallic array on an elastic film can realize dynamic color change by mechanical extensions, such as uniaxial or biaxial stretching. In this study, an electromagnetic model of a flexible metafilm composed of a microscale Al cylindrical array on a polydimethylsiloxane elastic film was constructed to study the underlying optical mechanism of color change, especially brightness and saturation changes, of the flexible metafilm with structural parameters (diameter and height of the Al cylinders) and stretching methods (uniaxial or biaxial stretching). The 3D finite time domain difference method was used to simulate the propagation behavior of electromagnetic waves through metafilm. With increasing diameter, the lightness increases while the saturation decreases, which is due to the change of surface plasmon resonance from local surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) to propagation surface plasmon (PSP) and Wood Anomaly (WA) and finally to magnetic polariton excitation. With increasing height, lightness first decreases and then increases, while the change in saturation is opposite, which is due to the first increasing and then decreasing of the intensities of PSP and WA. By comparing the dynamic color changes of metafilm under uniaxial stretching and biaxial stretching, it is found that uniaxial stretching achieves lower lightness and saturation under small strain and higher lightness and saturation under large strain, which is caused by the enhanced WA and PSP on the Al-air interface at short wavelengths and the weakened LSPR on the Al-PDMS interface at long wavelengths. This discovery paves the way for practical applications of structural color display with high saturation and brightness.