Hybridized magnetic microwire metacomposites towards microwave cloaking and barcoding applications

The microwave behavior of polymer metacomposites containing parallel Fe-based and continuous/short-cut Co-based microwire arrays has been investigated. A magnetic field-tunable metacomposite feature has been identified in the dense continuous hybrid composite confirmed by the transmission windows in the frequency band of 1 to 3.5 GHz. The complex magnetically tuned redshift-blueshift evolution of the transmission window is reasoned to result from the competition between the dynamic wire-wire interaction and the ferromagnetic resonance of Fe-based wires. Increasing Co-based inter-wire spacing to 10 mm in the continuous hybrid composites, a remarkable dual-band transmission window in the 1.5-3.5 GHz and 9-17 GHz is respectively induced by the ferromagnetic resonance of Fe-based wires and the magnetic resonance arising between Fe-Co wire couples. The hybridization of parallel Fe-based and short-cut Co-based wires in the polymer composite leads to a significant enhancement of the transmission window in the frequency band of 1 to 6 GHz due to the band-stop nature of Co-based wires. The advanced hybridized microwire metacomposites are arguably demonstrated to be particularly attractive for microwave cloaking and radio frequency barcoding applications.

Metacomposite characteristics and their influential factors of polymer composites containing orthogonal ferromagnetic microwire arrays

The microwave properties of glass-fibers reinforced polymer composite embedded with an orthogonal array of Fe77Si10B10C3 microwires have been investigated. The composites containing orthogonal wire arrays display a remarkable transmission window in the frequency band of 1 to 6 GHz under zero external magnetic field indicating an intrinsic double-negative-index characteristic. The polymer matrices have proved to exert a synergistic effect on the microwave properties, which is responsible for the disappearance of the transmission windows when Ek is perpendicular to the glass fiber direction. The plasma frequency of the orthogonal microwire array composite is higher than that of the parallel microwire array with identical wire spacing; this could be attributed to the enhanced microwire-wave interaction induced by the axial electrical components on the additional layer of perpendicular wires. All these features make this new kind of orthogonal microwire composites promising for potential cloaking and sensing applications.