Electromagnetic properties of nanostructured materials

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Funder: University of York Research Priming Fund
Date: August 2013 - July 2015
Web pages: York Research Database
My roles: Researcher

The inclusion of nano-scale structures within materials has the potential to provide enhanced or customised electromagnetic properties. Applications of these materials include shielding of sensitive systems from electromagnetic radiation; selective transmission of particular radio frequencies and the absorption of electromagnetic radiation. This project enhanced the capability of the research group in the production and characterisation of such materials, in particular the measurement of their electromagnetic properties at gigahertz frequencies.

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Electromagnetic analysis of reflection and transmission from a materials sample

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New miniature coaxial transmission line test cell for material characterisation

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SEM image of a conductive graphene foam showing an open matrix of graphene flakes

The project, which was an internal collaboration between the AEG and Nanodevices research areas of the Department of Electronics funded by the University of York Research Priming Fund, consisted of three main tasks:

  1. Design and fabrication of a high-frequency coaxial test cell for shielding effectiveness and material parameter measurements. Calibration samples consisting of perforated metal plates and thin metal films were also fabricated.
  2. Development of robust material parameter extraction methods to obtain the complex material parameters from the measured reflection and transmission coefficients in the presence of noise and systematic errors.
  3. Fabrication of some preliminary test samples containing nano particles to demonstrate the use of the new test cell.

The details are available in the (Flintoft et al., 2015).

References

  1. Flintoft, I.D., Dawson, J.F., Will, I.G. and Dawson, L., 2015. Electromagnetic properties of nanostructured materials. [Technical Report] York, UK: University of York.

    This report summarises the progress to date of work funded by the University of York, Research Priming Fund, on “Electromagnetic properties of nanostructured materials”. The inclusion of nanoscale structures within materials has the potential to provide enhanced or customised electromagnetic properties. Applications include: shielding of sensitive systems from electromagnetic radiation (e.g. as widely used in the electronics and aerospace industries) and the ability to allow some radio signals to pass whilst preventing others (e.g. privacy and security applications). The work has allowed the Physical Layer Research Group to develop its measurement capability so that the electromagnetic properties of nanostructured materials can be measured and also to begin working on materials by fabricating a range of nano-particle based films. In Section 2 a review of the electromagnetic properties of materials and the extraction of electromagnetic parameters from various measurements is discussed. The software developed for parameter extraction is then summarised. In Section 3 the design and testing of a coaxial shielding measurement jig is described. In Section 4 the potential nano-structured materials that could be fabricated to address currently funded research application areas are identified . Section 5 provides some concluding remarks and describes future and ongoing work in this area.

    @techreport{Flintoft2015b,
  author = {Flintoft, I. D. and Dawson, J. F. and Will, I. G. and Dawson, L.},
  title = {Electromagnetic properties of nanostructured materials},
  institution = {University of York},
  year = {2015},
  type = {Technical Report},
  address = {York, UK},
  month = jul,
  file = {:pdfs/UoY_TR-Flintoft-2015.pdf:PDF},
  url = {https://pure.york.ac.uk/portal/files/47494367/Electromagnetic_properties_of_nanostructured_materials_Progress_Report_July_2015_V5_JFD.pdf}
}