Date of Completion

8-23-2017

Embargo Period

8-18-2018

Major Advisor

Rajeev Bansal

Associate Advisor

Helena Silva

Associate Advisor

Ali Gokirmak

Field of Study

Electrical Engineering

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Open Access

Open Access

Abstract

There has been a long-standing interest in the development of radar absorbing materials (RAMs) for military applications such as microwave absorbers for stealth technology, anechoic chambers, and morphing scenarios, as well as camouflaging ground-based hardware against airborne radar observation. Even so, there remain outstanding challenges in this area such as the selection of suitable material compositions, the available frequency bandwidth, and the required thickness of the materials. The properties of materials at the nano-scale can change significantly. With only a reduction in size (no change in the substance itself), materials can exhibit new properties such as electrical conductivity, insulating behavior, and greater reactivity, characteristics that the same substance does not display at the micro/macro-scale. In addition, interactions at the interfaces of phases improve substantially when the dimensions reach the nanometer dimensions. That is very important to enhance material properties. Composite materials are multi-phased compositions of two or more components, which obtain new characteristic properties. They usually consist of a certain host matrix containing one or more fillers, which can be made up of nanoparticles/fibers. Many efforts by researchers have been made in recent years using novel nanoscience improvements in order to get nanostructured materials with enhanced performance.

In this work, we investigate several approaches to design nano-structured composite materials, which would behave as suitable absorbers for normally indcident electromagnetic plane waves, and to enhance these properties consistent with the radar frequency bands. The thesis provides a useful sample of contemporary research activities in this field. It includes the related theory, fabrication, and characterization of various type of nanocomposites.

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