Attaining broadband absorption with a simple-designed photonic absorber is still considered a complex and daunting task. The Hadamard matrix has been a well-known concept for designing quantum gates in quantum mechanics and computing. Despite a series of noteworthy works being done with regard to the design of metamaterial absorbers, very few works exist in literature where a quantum-inspired design has been employed to design a metamaterial-based photonic absorber. In this work, we have demonstrated a polarization-insensitive ultrathin and wideband metamaterial (MM) absorber based on the pattern distribution of the Hadamard matrix. Within the optical domain, the demonstrated MM absorber showcases absorption of over 91% for both transverse electric (TE) mode and transverse magnetic (TM) mode. To explore the angular dependence on absorption features of our Hadamard matrix meta-absorber (HMMA), both TE and TM modes have been used at numerous incident-angles. Finite integration technique has been utilized to simulate the demonstrated MM absorber design and validated using the interference theory model to assure the simulated data. Moreover, electric and magnetic field characteristics, current distributions, and a plethora of parametric sweeps have also been investigated in order to better understand the suggested HMMA absorption mechanism. Because of its wideband absorption and polarization-insensitive characteristic, this MM absorber based on the Hadamard matrix arrangement permits a variety of applications such as light detectors, optical-sensors, magnetic resonance imaging, plasmonic-sensors, and thermal imaging applications.

Electromagnetic wideband absorption is still perceived as a critical and formidable challenge to address with an unambiguous photonic absorber. Subwavelength metamaterial unit cells with unique and controlled features have recently gained considerable interest. However, meta‐atoms, generated using a quantum‐inspired pattern distribution, are underwhelming in existing literature to design photonic absorbers and their potential application to manufacture solar sails is still quite uncommon. In this article, to create a flexible, polarization‐insensitive, ultrathin and broadband metamaterial absorber; quantum interference pattern inspired design has been utilized. Notably, this work proposes a novel approach of fabricating solar sails for the space exploration that incorporates our proposed broadband photonic absorber rather than conventional reflectors. The Quantum‐Inspired‐Meta‐Absorber (QIMA) exhibits an absorption of over 91% for the visible domain i.e., 380 to 800 nm. It has a 99.99% peak absorption at 525.352 nm under a conventional plane‐polarized source. The study shows that broadband absorbers are almost equivalent to excellent reflectors to design the solar sails in terms of the time averaged force calculated by utilizing the Maxwell stress tensor method. Thus, the QIMA has the potential to be a viable alternative to reflectors in the design of futuristic solar sails for space exploration. The interference theory model has also been utilized to assure the dependability of calculated data, and additionally, the standard AM1.5 solar spectrum has been utilized to demonstrate the QIMA’s solar harvesting potentiality.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.