Structuring micro/nanoscale hybrid Fe@SiC flakes for tunable microwave absorption properties

Conventional microwave absorption materials can be obtained either by designing periodic structure units or by composing magnetic/dielectric components, while recently, the integration of these two items has attracted considerable attention. In this paper, the development of a metacomposite consisting of a periodic arrangement of rectangular units by structuring an Fe@SiC composite, on a polyethylene terephthalate substrate, in which the microwave absorption performances can be controlled by tuning the dimensions of the structural units, is discussed. The maximum absorption peaks, of the structured absorbers, shift to a higher frequency with increasing the unit dimensions of the patterns, and meanwhile, the corresponding absorption efficiency can reach up to 48.5%, higher than the 26.5% of the non-structured absorber. A simulation shows that the high absorption performances can be attributed to electric loss caused by the gaps between the structural units. The present study provides an alternative concept for designing of microwave absorbers.