Novel microwave near-field sensors for material characterization, biology, and nanotechnology

The wide range of interesting electromagnetic behavior of contemporary materials requires that experimentalists working in this field master many diverse measurement techniques and have a broad understanding of condensed matter physics and biophysics. Measurement of the electromagnetic response of materials at microwave frequencies is important for both fundamental and practical reasons. In this paper, we propose a novel near-field microwave sensor with application to material characterization, biology, and nanotechnology. The sensor is based on a subwavelength ferrite-disk resonator with magnetic-dipolar-mode (MDM) oscillations. Strong energy concentration and unique topological structures of the near fields originated from the MDM resonators allow effective measuring material parameters in microwaves, both for ordinary structures and objects with chiral properties. VC 2013 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4791713]