Synthesis of Metamaterials from Graphene-Like Films on Silicon Carbide

The work is devoted to the study in the field of formation of metamaterials, in terms of design and manufacturing methods. SiC was used as the main material in this work, and a graphene-like film on the surface of silicon carbide, obtained by laser ablation with the destruction of silicon from the near-surface layers, was used as a conductive layer. With satisfactory conductivity and surface roughness modes, the thickness of the conductive coating was approximately 7 μm. The zero-index metamaterial in the form of a graphene-like conductive layer etched in a 250 μm thick SiC substrate is designed and numerically studied. Metamaterial is tuned to operate in the automotive radar and industrial fluid level sensing bands (75–85 GHz). The obtained reflection coefficient of the metamaterial unit-cell in the 75–85 GHz band is better than -20 dB. The retrieved effective permittivity of the unit-cell is less than 0.35. The technique for obtaining graphene-like coatings studied in the work can be used to manufacture field emission structures and gas sensor elements with a sensitive element made of a graphene-like film.