Novel broadband electromagnetic-wave absorption metasurfaces composed of C-doped FeCoNiSiAl high-entropy-alloy ribbons with hierarchical nanostructures

Abstract

Although various absorbers have been developed for electromagnetic-wave absorption materials (EAMs), the uniform composition and microstructure limit the design freedom of the soft magnetic properties, thus resulting in a ceiling of the absorption properties. Herein, we propose a revolutionary concept of C-doped FeCoNiSiAl high-entropy-alloy (HEA) ribbons with hierarchical nanostructures composed of ultrafine grains (400 nm), B2 nanoprecipitates (80 nm), and C@FeNi core–shell nanoparticles (15 nm) to induce superior soft magnetization and absorption. The hierarchical nanostructures resulted in a low coercivity (HC, 589.04 A/m) and a low conductivity (294.1 S/cm) to support the loss effect and impedance matching, and 87% of the saturation magnetization (MS, 135.13 emu/g) was maintained, even at the high temperature of 973 K, corresponding to ultra-stable magnetization. Furthermore, the Curie-temperature was greater than 1000 K. The B2 nanoprecipitates and corresponding interfaces created strong stray magnetic flux lines and magnetic domain vortices, and thus, the metasurfaces innovatively fabricated with HEA ribbons induced a strong absorption peak (−50.88 dB) and effective broadband absorption (reflection loss (RL) ≤ −10 dB within 5.86–18 GHz) due to the strong magnetic coupling. The hierarchical nanostructure is a promising strategy to tailor magnetic HEAs with a new degree of freedom for advanced EAMs.