Molding the flow of magnetic field with metamaterials: Magnetic field shielding

Abstract

In this paper, it is demonstrated how anisotropic and inhomogeneous magnetic metamaterials may be used for molding the flow of the magnetic field, considering magnetic field shielding as the main application of practical interest. It is shown that using anisotropic materials, magnetic field shielding may be improved, and this anisotropy can be realized by metamaterials. Introducing additional inhomogeneity in the metamaterial can increase the shielding performance even more. The required parameters for inhomogeneity may be obtained by representing the shielding problem in matrix form, using a quasi-static magnetic field approximation. Finally, some comments on the practical implementation of the metamaterial and comparisons with the standard shielding techniques are given.