Implementing of infrared camouflage with thermal management based on inverse design and hierarchical metamaterial

Infrared camouflage is an effective technique to avoid many kinds of target detection by detectors in the infrared band. For a high-temperature environment, thermal management of selective emission is crucial to dissipate heat in the mid-infrared non-atmospheric window (5–8 μm). However, it still remains challenges for balancing infrared camouflage and thermal management. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a multilayer film structure (MFS) for infrared camouflage with thermal management. Combining the ideal emission spectrum and genetic algorithm (GA), the inverse-design MFS containing 7 layers of five materials (SiO2, Ge, ZnS, Pt and Au) has been designed. Based on the hierarchical metamaterial, the optimized MFS has high performance of infrared camouflage to against the lidar detection in the near-infrared band. The experimental results reveal the high compatible efficiency among thermal camouflage (ε3–5μm = 0.21, ε8–14μm = 0.16), laser stealth (ε1.06μm = 0.64, ε1.55μm = 0.90, ε10.6μm = 0.76) and thermal management (ε5–8μm = 0.54). Therefore, the proposed MFSs are attractive as basic building block of selective emitter, for the application of advanced photonics such as radiative cooling, infrared camouflage, and thermal emission.