Microwave absorptions of ultrathin conductive films and designs of frequency-

independent ultrathin absorbers

Sucheng Li, Shahzad Anwar, Weixin Lu, Zhi Hong Hang, Bo Hou, Mingrong Shen, and Chin-Hua Wang

Citation: AIP Advances 4, 017130 (2014); doi: 10.1063/1.4863921

View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4863921
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/adv/4/1
Published by the American Institute of Physics

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 AIP ADVANCES 4, 017130 (2014)

Microwave absorptions of ultrathin conductive films and

designs of frequency-independent ultrathin absorbers
Sucheng Li,1 Shahzad Anwar,1 Weixin Lu,1 Zhi Hong Hang,1 Bo Hou,1,a
Mingrong Shen,1 and Chin-Hua Wang2
1
School of Physical Science and Technology, Soochow University, 1 Shizi Street, Suzhou
215006, China
2
Institute of Modern Optical Technologies & Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou
Nano Science and Technology, Jiangsu Key Lab of Advanced Optical Manufacturing
Technologies, Soochow University, 1 Shizi Street, Suzhou 215006, China
(Received 19 November 2013; accepted 20 January 2014; published online 29 January 2014)

We study the absorption properties of ultrathin conductive films in the microwave

regime, and find a moderate absorption effect which gives rise to maximal absorbance
50% if the sheet (square) resistance of the film meets an impedance matching con-
dition. The maximal absorption exhibits a frequency-independent feature and takes
place on an extremely subwavelength scale, the film thickness. As a realistic instance,
∼5 nm thick Au film is predicted to achieve the optimal absorption. In addition, a
methodology based on metallic mesh structure is proposed to design the frequency-
independent ultrathin absorbers. We perform a design of such absorbers with 50%
absorption, which is verified by numerical simulations.  C 2014 Author(s). All arti-

cle content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 Unported License. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4863921]

The study of electromagnetic (EM) absorbers has always been receiving intense attentions, due
to their wide applications in many fields like EM shielding, infrared sensing, solar energy harvesting
and so on.1–5 Recently, a type of high-performance absorbers based on metamaterials has been
realized in microwave frequencies.6–8 These ultrathin absorbers can show nearly 100% absorbance
on either narrow-band or broad-band via deliberate designs, but their experimental realizations have
used rigid printed circuit boards as supporting dielectrics, which limits their potential applications as
EM absorbing/shielding materials in some specific fields, for example the soft electronics including
rollable displays, plastic solar cells, etc.9 These special EM absorbing materials have to be flexible,
lightweight, and thin, in addition to absorptions.
Accompanying with the rapid growth of the soft, ultrathin electronic/optoelectronic devices,10
our indoor and outdoor space has been permeated by numerous radio-frequency/microwave
(RF/MW) wireless signals which are cellular network, WiFi, GPS, and Near Field Communica-
tion, to name a few, to facilitate our mobile communication. These ambient electromagnetic fields
will continuously strike on various touch-screen electronics which are being increasingly used in
our everyday life and where a layer of ultrathin conductive film (UCF) have been integrated as
transparent conductors for the display screens.11–13 Because a conductor can reflect and dissipate
EM waves, it is interesting to assess the effect of the transparent conductors (TCs), i.e. ultrathin con-
ductive films, exposed to the ambient RF/MW fields. Note that the transparency of TCs is evaluated
to visible light, and they may be or may not be transparent to RF/MW. Yamada et al. has found that
the TCs of low resistivity reflect most of incoming EM waves and hence function as EM interference
shielding materials in RF/MW bands.14
In this work, we investigate the absorption properties of the UCFs in the microwave regime by
formulating the reflection/transmission problem of the films in free space, and show that they can give

a Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Electronic mail: [email protected], [email protected]

2158-3226/2014/4(1)/017130/6 4, 017130-1 
C Author(s) 2014
017130-2 Li et al. AIP Advances 4, 017130 (2014)

rise to a dominant absorption effect, rather than reflection, with maximal absorbance 50% which
is solely determined by their sheet resistance Rs . The moderate absorption exhibits a frequency-
independent feature and takes place on an extremely subwavelength scale, the film thickness. As a
realistic instance, we predict ∼5 nm smooth gold (Au) film can achieve such maximal absorption. It
should be noted that the subwavelength absorption thickness is two orders of magnitude smaller than
the skin depth of gold at the typical microwave frequencies. In addition, we perform the numerical
designs of the frequency-independent ultrathin absorbers, based on the microwave absorptions of
the UCFs.
Regarding to the microwave absorptions, all kinds of UCFs may be modeled as a smooth thin
film of conductivity σ and thickness h in free space, as illustrated in Fig. 1(a). The effect of the
substrates, typically glass and flexible organic film with submillimeter thickness, for instance 10−2
∼ 10−1 mm which is significantly less than the relevant wavelength, is negligible for their dielectric
constants are usually very low in RF/MW domain. From classical EM theory, the transmission and
reflection coefficients of the smooth film are expressed as:
   −1
i Z Z0
t = cos(nk0 h) − + sin(nk0 h) (1a)
2 Z0 Z

   
i Z Z0
r =t − − sin(nk0 h) , (1b)
2 Z0 Z
where n and Z denotes the refractive index and the impedance of the film, respectively, Z0 is the
vacuum impedance, and k0 = ω/c = 2π f /c (f being the frequency and c being the speed of light
in vacuum). The absorbance is calculated via the relation A = 1 − R − T , where the reflectance
R = |r |2 and the transmittance T = |t|2 . For the film within the RF/MW frequencies, both conditions,
nk0 h  1 (small thickness) and σ /(ωε0 )  1 (low frequency), are satisfied generally. By applying
these two conditions and taking the relative permittivity of the film εr ≈ iσ /(ωε0 ) where i2 = −1,
the above equations can be approximated as:
 
Z 0 /2 −1
t ≈ 1+ (2a)
1/(σ h)

 
Z 0 /2
r ≈t − (2b)
1/(σ h)
Therefore, the absorbance of the UCF is
 
Z 0 /2 Z 0 /2 2
A = 1 − |r | − |t| = 2 ·
2 2
1+ . (3)
1/(σ h) 1/(σ h)

It is readily proved that the absorbance A has the maximal value 50% when 1/(σ h) = Z0 /2
= 188. Note that the absorption expression doesn’t involve any frequency-dependent quantity,
which implies a frequency-independent feature for the absorption behavior. This frequency-irrelevant
behavior may break down upon σ becoming dispersive at higher EM frequencies, e.g. terahertz.
The quantity 1/(σ h) is identified as the sheet resistance Rs which, too, characterizes the electrical
resistance of the conductive film with an arbitrarily sized square shape. It should be noted here that
the maximal absorption results have been obtained in several previous publications for other thin
film systems.5, 15–18
The typical square resistance is ∼10−2  for a skin depth thickness of noble metal film in
microwave frequencies, and thus the incident microwave is almost exclusively reflected due to
the huge mismatch between Rs and Z0 . In order to enhance the EM dissipation in the film, we
need decrease σ or h or both. It is known that the metal conductivity becomes dependent on the
thickness for nanometer sized films. From Poo et al.’s experimental work,19 we find the measured
conductivities for the Au films with several nanometer-sized thicknesses, and the simple calculation
of the sheet resistance of the Au films reveals the maximal absorption 50% take place at the thickness
017130-3 Li et al. AIP Advances 4, 017130 (2014)

FIG. 1. (a) The schematic picture of the metallic ultrathin film with conductivity σ and thickness h. (b) The calculated
microwave spectra of the 4.9 nm Au film of conductivity 1.07 × 106 S/m at normal incidence. (c) and (d) The calculated
microwave spectra of the 4.9 nm Au film of conductivity 1.07 × 106 S/m for the oblique incidence cases of TE and TM
mode, respectively.

of <10 nm. Limited by the availability of the experimental data, σ , of the Au film within 10 nm
thickness, we simply assume that the conductivity is directly proportional to the film thickness,
σ (h) = σ L h/L, within 10 nm. Considering the conditions σ (h = 0) = 0 and σ (h = L = 10 nm)
= σ L = 2.17 × 106 S/m,19 we establish a coarse relation σ (h) = 2.17 × 1014 h. In order to acquire
the maximal absorption condition 1/(σ h) = Z0 /2, the ultrathin Au film is found to be 4.9 nm thick
and have the conductivity 1.07 × 106 S/m. Consequently, we calculate the reflectance, transmittance,
and absorbance of the 4.9 nm Au film for the normal incidence in the frequency band 1–20 GHz, as
shown in Fig. 1(b). We notice that ∼5 nm gold film may absorb 50% incident power in a frequency-
irrelevant behavior. Therefore the optimal absorption is extremely broadband in nature. Note that the
most efficient absorption thickness, ∼5 nm, is two orders of magnitude thinner than the skin depth
δ of Au, ∼550 nm, at the typical microwave frequency 20 GHz.
The maximal absorption is not only frequency-independent, but also has small angular dis-
persion. In the off-normal incidence with oblique angle θ 0 , the calculation would give rise to the
absorbance expression identical to Eq. (3), if Z0 was replaced by Z0 /cosθ 0 for TE mode and by
Z0 cosθ 0 for TM mode. We calculate the absorptions at different incidence angles for both TE and
TM modes for the 4.9 nm Au film, and plot the results in Figs. 1(c) and 1(d). It is seen that 50%
absorption persists almost to the 50o angle for both modes.
On the other hand, under oblique incidence, the 50% absorbance can happen to the UCF whose
sheet resistance is any value, if the matching condition Rs = (Z 0 /2) cos θ0 for TM illumination or
Rs = (Z 0 /2)/ cos θ0 for TE illumination is met, respectively, as shown in Fig. 2. This means the
UCFs, irrespective of their sheet resistance, are always able to absorb the 50% EM radiation either
for TM or TE waves incoming from a definite angle. Therefore, the moderate dissipation of the
aforementioned ambient EM signals might take place unexpectedly on large screen devices where
the UCFs are deposited as TCs. Especially, the TCs inside widely-used touch screens no larger
than 10 inch have the sheet resistance being several hundreds ohm. Fortunately, the dissipation is
017130-4 Li et al. AIP Advances 4, 017130 (2014)

FIG. 2. The absorbance of the microwave by the UCF of sheet resistance Rs at different incident angle θ 0 for (a) TE and
(b) TM mode, respectively. The green solid lines represent the maximal absorption conditions Rs = (Z 0 /2)/ cos θ0 in TE
mode and Rs = (Z 0 /2) cos θ0 in TM mode.

typically weak on the screens due to the ambient field intensity and the angular and polarization
selectivity. In some situations, it is also likely to be forbidden by the metallic back shells underlying
the screens for the ultrathin electronic devices, because of the boundary condition on the perfect
conducting wall.
From the technical point of view, the metallic films thicker than 5 nm are more easily fabricated
with good quality control. Here, we present the design methodology to realize a metallic UCF
with the tens-of-nanometer thickness and the 50% absorption capacity. Given such thickness, the
conductivity has the definite value on the smooth film, which is slightly less than the bulk value,17 for
instance the case for 20 nm Au film with conductivity 5.6 × 106 S/m.19 Since the sheet resistances of
these smooth films with tens-of-nanometer thickness are much less than Z0 /2, we make the opening
on the films to tune the effective conductivity σ eff and consequently Rs , providing that the opening
size is significantly smaller than the microwave wavelength. By introducing the openings, the area
fraction, ξ , of the metallic part is lowered, due to which the conductivity is effectively decreased for
the whole structured film.
In order that the structured screen is viewed reliably as an effective homogeneous conductive
medium to the incoming microwave, we require that the structural periodicity, p, is at least one
hundredth times less than the wavelength, in addition that the metal is of continuous phase inside
the whole film. Then, the two dimensional Maxwell-Garnett formula for conductivities
σ ef f − σ
= −(1 − ξ ) (4)
σ ef f + σ
is used to compute the relation of σ eff v.s. ξ , and the proper ξ can be determined giving rise to
1/(σ eff h) = Z0 /2 for the maximal absorption at normal incidence. Last, the opening length and the
periodicity is chosen to meet the aforementioned effective medium requirement and the possible
fabrication tolerance.
In Fig. 3(a), we present the schematic drawing of an absorber design which is essentially
the metallic mesh structure (square lattice). The 20 nm Au film is assumed with the conductivity
σ = 5.6 × 106 S/m, the periodicity of the mesh p = 100 um, the linewidth of the metal w = 4.6 um.
Although the aforementioned analysis is assumed for the freestanding metallic structure, the theory
is also applicable to the practical case where the metallic structure is supported by the thin dielectric
substrate with low permittivity. The substrate effect is negligible as long as its thickness is thin
enough and its permittivity is small enough. In our designing example, the dielectric substrate has
the thickness d = 0.04 mm and the relative permittivity εr = 3.2. Such dielectrics are easily accessible
among the polymer materials, for instance, Kapton. The structured Au film of h = 20 nm, w = 4.6 um
and p = 100 um is predicted to have ξ = 9%, σ eff = 2.64 × 105 S/m and resultantly Rs = 189,
according to Eq. (4). We examine numerically its microwave spectra in the finite-element-method
017130-5 Li et al. AIP Advances 4, 017130 (2014)

FIG. 3. (a) The schematic drawing of an absorber design, where the thickness of the Au film h = 20 nm, the periodicity of
the square mesh p = 100 um, the line width w = 4.6 um, and the dielectric substrate has the thickness d = 0.04 mm and the
dielectric constant εr = 3.2. (b) The simulated microwave spectra of the absorber at normal incidence. The inset depicts the
unit cell modeled in the simulation. (c) and (d) The plots of the 10 GHz absorbance v.s. angle in oblique incidence for TE
and TM mode, respectively.

simulation software, COMSOL Multiphysics, and plot them in Fig. 3(b) where the inset depicts the
simulated unit cell with the substrate modeled. The results display the exact behavior as expected
and prove our design. We also illustrate the results of oblique incidence cases in Figs. 3(c) and 3(d),
where the lines are the simulated results from COMSOL and the symbols are the calculated results
from the absorbance formula under oblique incidence.
It is noted that the um-sized mesh design maintains excellent optical transparency. Within the
geometrical optics approximation, the optical transmission in the whole visible spectrum is equal
to 1-ξ for the freestanding mesh structure, unlike the metallic TCs with the nanopatterned mesh
where the light has the strong interaction with the structure.20, 21 An important requirement of our
absorbers is that the metallic film thickness is significantly less than the skin depth, which results
in an ultrathin absorber design and on the other hand implies all metallic parts in the structure are
permeated by the incoming wave and contribute to the EM dissipation. The ultrathin feature leads to
the full metal utilization efficiency for dissipating the EM wave, comparing to the resonant absorbers
from the metallic elements on printed circuit boards where metal layers are usually thicker than the
skin depth.6–8 Furthermore, the thickness advantage may be beneficial to ultrathin, light-weight and
flexible absorbing applications.2, 3
In conclusion, we study theoretically the absorption properties of the UCFs in microwave regime
and reveal a dominant absorption effect, with maximal absorbance 50% if their sheet resistance
meets the matching condition Rs = (Z 0 /2) cos θ0 for TM illumination or Rs = (Z 0 /2)/ cos θ0 for
TE illumination. The moderate absorption exhibits a frequency-independent feature and takes place
on an extremely subwavelength scale, the film thickness. As a realistic instance, ∼5 nm thick Au
film is predicted to achieve the maximal absorption at normal incidence case. For the thicker film, the
017130-6 Li et al. AIP Advances 4, 017130 (2014)

micropatterned holy structure can help to enhance the absorption because the effective conductivity
and the sheet resistance can be tuned to be Z0 /2 by the patterned holes. We perform a design of
the UCF with the optimal 50% absorption, which is verified in the numerical simulation. Based on
our work, a type of ultrathin, ultra-broadband and flexible absorber with moderate EM dissipating
capacity may be developed to enable novel applications.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.
11104198, 11304215), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (Grant No. BK20130281)
and a Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development (PAPD) of Jiangsu Higher
Education Institutions. C.-H. W. acknowledges the support from National Research Foundation for
the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (20103201110015).
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