Study on electromagnetic scattering characteristics of inductively coupled plasma superimposed honeycomb absorbing structure

A new honeycomb absorbing superimposed structure based on inductively coupled plasma (ICP) is proposed in this study. The superimposed structure is composed of a thin-layer honeycomb absorbing structure (HAS) and a square plasma discharge cavity with a maximum thickness of 3 cm. External conditions such as RF power,pressure and cavity thickness of ICP can adjust the absorbing frequency band and reflectivity of the superimposed structure. The model of the inductively coupled plasma superimposed honeycomb absorbing structure (ICP-HAS) is analyzed and simulated by CST software, and the reflectivity test system is built. The simulation and experimental results show that increasing the RF power and pressure can improve the absorbing effect of the superimposed structure, and changing the thickness of the cavity will change the absorbing frequency band and reflectivity valley. The maximum −10 dB absorbing bandwidth of the proposed superimposed absorbing structure can reach 12.6 GHz. In addition, the multiple reflection and refraction of the electromagnetic wave by ICP can give full play to the microwave absorption performance of the HAS. Therefore, the proposed ICP-HAS can achieve broadband actively adjustable microwave absorption without using magnetic materials and low thickness. •A new type of honeycomb absorbing superimposed structure based on inductively coupled plasma is proposed in this study.•The influence of different RF power on the electron density and electron temperature of ICP was investigated by COMSOL.•The multilayered model of ICP was established, and the reflectivities of ICP-HAS under different RF power are calculated.•The influence of external conditions on the electromagnetic scattering characteristics of the ICP-HAS was investigated.•The active adjustable absorbing effect of the ICP-HAS can be realized by adjusting the ICP generator.