Metamaterial’s Acceptable Level of Wrecked Meta-pattern

The periodic arrangement in metamaterial (MM) should be maintained to ensure the extraordinary properties, but how much periodic irregularity is allowed generally without degrading the properties is not only important for the tolerance in fabrication but interesting scientifically. We introduce the wrecked effect in MM utilizing perfect MM absorber in visible and GHz ranges. The original perfect MM properties turn out to be maintained until MM is destroyed to 10%. In the view of MM absorber, even 40% broken meta-pattern are still good for absorption higher than 93%, the criterion for perfect absorption. The wrecked pattern over 80% result in absorption of nearly 50% in both simulation and experiment, which is even higher than expected. These results can lead to broad applications at the present and in near future through more convenient and cost-effective research and development on MMs.