  We investigate the interaction of polarized electromagnetic waves with
hyperbolic metamaterial structures, whereby the in-plane permittivity component
$\epsilon_x$ is opposite in sign to the normal component $\epsilon_z$. We find
that when the thickness of the metamaterial is smaller than the wavelength of
the incident wave, hyperbolic metamaterials can absorb significantly higher
amounts of electromagnetic energy compared to their conventional counterparts.
We also demonstrate that for wavelengths leading to $\Re(\epsilon_z) \approx
0$, near-perfect absorption arises and persists over a range of frequencies and
subwavelength structure thicknesses.
