Development and characterization of an Al-grid metasurface on conformal geometry

Conformal, e.g. cylindrical, metasurfaces are even more diffused in different fields from optics to electromagnetics. Advanced applications as cloaking, i.e. making object invisible/transparent to incident fields, require high precision realizations, since the resonant answer of the system is very sensitive to the geometry. Practical realizations are sometimes limited by mechanical/material restrictions; multi- and inter-disciplinary interaction is mandatory to overcome such technological limits. Due to their excellent esthetic characteristics, good physical and mechanical properties, Aluminium is widely used for deposition on different substrate: physical and/or chemical vapor depositions are very suitable for micro-metallization process and for the realization of multilayered structures. This paper presents the results of a preliminary study on the surface morphology and mechanical properties of Al films deposited on a flexible, polymeric organosilicon compounds, in particular on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates. The adhesion of the metal layers to the PDMS surface have been investigated by structural and morphological analysis