Magnetic nanoparticles for radar wave attenuation : silica coated cobalt-iron nanoparticles

Abstract

Radar Absorbing Materials (RAM) has gain strong interest in recent years as armed forces are moving into the stealth era. RAM coatings are very effective means of reducing Radar Cross Section (RCS) by converting incident radar waves into other forms of energy. However RAM cannot absorb radar waves of all frequencies, specific composition absorbs certain frequencies more effectively than others; no single RAM composition thus far is able to absorb all radar frequency. Silica coated Cobalt-Iron alloy nanoparticles with varying ratio compositions (CoxFe3-x@SiO2) were designed for high performance radar wave attenuation. Cobalt and Iron are ferromagnetic materials with similar magnetic saturation strength, thus an alloy combination provides a promising avenue for RAM development.