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Low Refractive Metamaterials for Gain Enhancement of Horn Antenna

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Abstract

A flat metamaterials (MTMs) structure with low refractive index is proposed as a cover in a high-gain horn antenna configuration. The MTMs is composed of two-layer metallic grids and slices of foam. For the characterization of the MTMs, the low refraction property is studied and the effective refractive index n ≈ 0.08 (12.0 GHz) is retrieved. The antenna gain and the radiation pattern are calculated. Because of the electromagnetic wave congregating effect of the MTMs, the gain of the horn with MTMs greatly increases (about 4 dB from 11.8 GHz–12.8 GHz) when compared with the conventional type. We conducted the experiments to verify the simulation results. The idea has a good potential application to the feed design of parabolas.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by 973 Program of China (No.2006CB302900) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (60507014 and 60678035). Authors would like to thank Dr. Yongqi Fu, for his kind contribution for the work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physics and Electron Communication Department of Leshan Teachers College, Leshan Sichuan, 614004, China

    Zhigang Xiao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Optical Technologies for Microfabrication, Institute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, 610209, China

    Huiliang Xu

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  1. Zhigang Xiao
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  2. Huiliang Xu
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Correspondence to Huiliang Xu.

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Xiao, Z., Xu, H. Low Refractive Metamaterials for Gain Enhancement of Horn Antenna. J Infrared Milli Terahz Waves 30, 225–232 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10762-008-9449-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10762-008-9449-3

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