Electrostatic chameleons: theory of intelligent metashells with adaptive response to inside objects

The remarkable capability to tailor material property has largely expanded the permittivity range, even with negative value. However, permittivity, as an inherent property, may lack adaptive response to nearby objects. To solve this problem, here we introduce the chameleon behavior from biology to electrostatics. The essence of electrostatic chameleons can be concluded as intelligent metashells with adaptive response to inside objects. The requirement of electrostatic chameleons is deduced by making the effective permittivities of metashells only dependent on the permittivities of inside objects. By delicately designing the anisotropic permittivities of metashells, we summarize two types of electrostatic chameleons with distinct mechanisms. The theoretical analyses are validated by numerical simulations, which indicate that the proposed metashells do work as expected. Such schemes have potential applications in camouflage, self-adaption, etc. This work not only lays the theoretical foundation for electrostatic chameleons, but also provides guidance for exploring other intelligent materials beyond chameleon. Graphical abstract:

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