Composite ceramics for power beaming

In the search for candidate materials for a robust mm-wave heat-exchanger, composite materials composed of a thermally conductive “host” material and a small inclusion of a very lossy material are particularly promising. However, there is little data available on the properties of materials in the W-band, a frequency range which is particularly useful for long-range power transmission. In this work, we measure the dielectric properties of composite materials composed of aluminum oxide with a lossy material inclusion and subject these materials to heating by a 100 Watt W-band mm-wave source. The results of these measurements are presented and discussed.