Synthetic magnetic structures to tailor electromagnetic response on flexible substrates

电磁能量的传播是我们信息时代的现代世界的基础。从麦克斯韦基本方程和他的波动方程可以清楚地看出，决定传播的是波/能量在其中传播或与之相互作用的材料的介电常数和磁导率。因此，控制和控制磁导率和磁导率对于优化性能和开拓新的应用领域至关重要。我们已经研究了0.5-20 GHz区域内磁性材料的固有电磁特性，特别关注磁导率，因为我们试图通过对已知材料进行“多层”处理来创建“合成”材料来调节它，从而创造出成分本身无法实现的新功能。在数据存储的应用中，随着操作频率的增加以及硬盘驱动器的读/写头部分中的温度可能变化，磁导率的控制对于优化对读写过程的磁屏蔽是必要的。然而，在许多其他应用中，对诸如磁导率的电磁特性的控制是至关重要的，例如，诸如滤波器、移相器和信噪比增强器的设备。这些微波器件广泛应用于雷达系统和军用和民用通信系统中，其中大多数电子设备的薄膜系统都是在硅/陶瓷晶片等刚性衬底上进行的。本项目将把人们对在柔性衬底上开发这些磁导率可控的合成磁性系统的兴趣扩展到柔性衬底上。尽管在柔性甚至透明的衬底上制备材料面临许多基本的科学挑战，但国际上在柔性电子产品方面做出了重大努力，特别是用于显示系统，如电子纸。柔性衬底提供了涂覆或覆盖可用于射频和微波应用的表面的机会，例如屏蔽或反射。安全部门还提供了智能标签(钞票、商品)或射频识别标签(安全访问)的主要机会。该项目旨在开发一系列沉积在柔性衬底上的材料，可以探索不同的应用，通过项目的持续时间，学生将有机会参与并与其他行业最终用户互动，这些用户可能会利用研究成果应用到上述应用中。

Propagation of electromagnetic energy is fundamental in our 'information age' modern world. It is evident from the fundamental Maxwell's equations, and his wave equation, that what determines propagation is the dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability of the materials that the wave/energy propagates in, or interacts with. Therefore, control and manipulation of permitivitty and permeability is essential to optimise performance and open up new applications.We already investigate the inherent electromagnetic properties of magnetic materials in the 0.5-20 GHz regime, paying particular attention to the permeability, as we seek to tune it by creating 'synthetic' materials by 'multilayering' known materials to create new functionality not achievable from the constituents themselves. In the application of data storage, as operational frequencies increase, and the temperature in portions of a read/write head of a hard-disk drive may vary, control of permeability is necessary to optimise magnetic shielding from the reading and writing processes.However, there are many other applications where control over electromagnetic properties such as permeability are vital e.g. devices such as filters, phase shifters, and signal to noise enhancers. These microwave devices are widely used in radar systems and in both military and civilian communication systems where the majority of thin film systems for electronic devices are on rigid substrates such as silicon/ceramic wafers.This project will extend the interest in the development of these synthetic magnetic systems with controlled permeability onto flexible substrates. Despite many fundamental scientific challenges of preparing materials on flexible and even transparent substrates there is major international effort in flexible electronics particularly for display systems e.g. electronic paper. Flexible substrates offer the opportunity to coat or cover surfaces that could be used in RF and microwave applications such as shielding or reflection. The security sector also offers major opportunities with smart tagging (bank notes, commodities) or radio frequency identification tags (secure access).This project will be aimed at developing a series of materials deposited on flexible substrates that can be explore for different applications and though the duration of the project the student will have the opportunity to engage and interact with other industry end users who might exploit the research into applications described above.