Metallic wire structures under an intense electromagnetic field

We discuss the limitation of metallic wire structures as absorbers of high intensity electromagnetic radiation due to the large local electrical fields developed at junctions and free ends of the wires. We find that at resonance the breakdown external electric field applied to the body of the wire structure is smaller by several orders of magnitude than the dielectric breakdown field induced at the ends of the wire. We consider the {\bf double} split ring structure and find that it can offer an enhancement of the ohmic power absorbed by an order of magnitude over that of single component systems. For multiply connected wire structures we find classes of resonant modes with zero local fields at the junctions but the fields at the free wire ends remain finite.