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This Defense Intelligence Reference Document, DIA-08-1004-006, is dated 6 April 2010 and was prepared by the Defense Intelligence Agency's Defense Warning Office. It is one of a series of advanced technology reports produced in FY 2009 under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program. The report reviews electromagnetic and optical metamaterials and their uses in sub-diffraction imaging, component miniaturization, energy harvesting, optical isolators and tunable devices. It concludes that metamaterials remain academic but have great potential for aerospace applications.
From the source:Release of 2026-09-18 Incident: 4/6/10, Las Vegas, Nevada. Released with redactions. This document is a Defense Intelligence Reference Document (DIRD), a technical reference format used by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) to capture baseline knowledge on a specific topic for later analytic use. DIRDs are best understood as reference and synthesis products rather than as original research. It is one of 38 DIRDs produced under the Advanced Aerospace Weapon System Applications Program (AAWSAP) between 2009 and 2011. Because AAWSAP’s scope permitted a broad range of supporting topics, not every DIRD in the series directly concerns aerospace systems or future threat assessment. The following summary reflects the DIRD’s scope and framing at the time of writing and should not be read as implying current validation of the concepts discussed. This DIRD surveys metamaterials, engineered structures designed to control electromagnetic waves in ways ordinary materials cannot, and argues that their main aerospace value lies in unusual optical and microwave properties together with significant component miniaturization. The report reviews possible applications including sub-wavelength imaging, compact waveguides and lasers, energy harvesting, tunable absorbers, nonreciprocal devices, and switchable materials, with particular emphasis on infrared and microwave uses for sensing, power management, and payload efficiency. It notes that many of the most ambitious applications depend on the practical output of a still-nascent field, especially in optical metamaterials, where only limited demonstrations had been achieved and fabrication remained a major constraint. The document presents metamaterials as a promising advanced materials field with credible niche applications and broader long-term potential.
UNCLASSIFIED/ (FOR OFFIClt.k YSE 8Htt Metamaterials for Energy Harvesting One of the most important appli cations of meta materials is related to developing "perfect absorbers" of infrared electromagnetic radiation, be it in the mid-to-long infrared part of the spectrum (making it relevant for night vision, harvesting of the Earth glow mid-infrared radiation, and so forth) or in the near-to-mid-IR spectrum (making it relevant for day-time infrared photography of the earth terrain). For example, day-time infrared photography relies on the different sunlight reflectivities of surfaces (for example, snow, brick walls, concrete walls, grass, and so forth), and can easily distinguish between those surfaces . This reflectivity differential tends to be the greatest between 2-3 microns, and rapidly decays toward longer wavelengths. Open sky conta ins very little infrared radiation which explains why infrared imaging/photography is very important for aerial and satellite surveys. Because light scattering in the atmosphere scales as >,.-4 , imaging through the atmosphere in the visible range is impossible, and infrared imaging becomes important. This is especially true for the 1 10 μm) this brightness differential is largely gone because the emission spectrum is dominated by thermal emission. In fact, the Earth glow maximum is around A> 10 μm, with most of the energy contained in the 3 μm < A < 14 μm range. This longer wavelength (mid-to-far IR) spectral range is also very important. It can be used for night-time energy scavenging by high-altitude satellites and other aerospace platforms. There has been a surge of activity in this area, first in the microwave/THz part of the electromagnetic spectrum (References 33, 34), and subsequently in mid-to-far infrared (Reference 20). The concept of narrow-band metamaterials-based absorbers introduced in Reference 33 has the potential for developing highly efficient bolometer arrays. When applied to the infrared part of the spectrum, it can be used for space navigation, especially when weak infrared signals from specific stellar objects need to be picked up and discriminated from other radiation sources. For such applications, the narrow-band "perfect" absorption is highly suitable. An array of such bolometers would reject (reflect) all undesirable frequencies and focus on the single wavelength characteristic of the source of interest. Moreover, if an array of different (for example, tuned to different frequencies) narrow band detectors can be deployed, then the hyper-spectral imaging capability could bring additional benefits. For example, absolute temperatures of a radiation source (that is, stellar bodies) could be accurately determined, and could improve the accuracy of space navigation further. (a) (b) (c) -l ~ (J) 3 iii" (J) 6":::, H 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.01 Figure 18. "Perfect" Narrow-Band Microwave Absorber. (a-c): Unit cell design . Right panel: sim ulated absorption/transmission/reflection. (Reference 33) UNCLASSIFIED/ /EAR QFFICl.t.ls W8I! Bfltf 20
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Official release, from the pursue collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 38 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.