Strong microwave absorption of hydrogenated wide bandgap semiconductor nanoparticles.
Electromagnetic interactions in the microelectronvolt (μeV) or microwave region have numerous important applications in both civil and military fields, such as electronic communications, signal protection, and antireflective coatings on airplanes against microwave detection. Traditionally, nonmagnetic wide-bandgap metal oxide semiconductors lack these μeV electronic transitions and applications. Here, we demonstrate that these metal oxides can be fabricated as good microwave absorbers using a 2D electron gas plasma resonance at the disorder/order interface generated by a hydrogenation process. Using ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles as examples, we show that large absorption with reflection loss values as large as -49.0 dB (99.99999%) is obtained in the microwave region. The frequency of absorption can be tuned with the particle size and hydrogenation condition. These results may pave the way for new applications for wide bandgap semiconductors, especially in the μeV regime.
†Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri 64110, United States.
Ting
T
Xia
‡State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, People's Republic of China.
Yinghui
Y
Cao
†Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri 64110, United States.
Nathan A
NA
Oyler
§Department of Geosciences, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri 64110, United States.
James
J
Murowchick
‡State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, People's Republic of China.
Lei
L
Liu
†Department of Chemistry, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri 64110, United States.
Xiaobo
X
Chen
2D electron gas; electromagnetic absorption; nanoparticles; plasmon; semiconductors; wide bandgap