How to included text within angle brackets in JavaScript?

I am trying to send a XML request to a server using javascript. I am using a variable to define the url where the request should be sent. However, the URL includes text between angle brackets as part of the request and when I print out the variable I see the url without any of the text that was included within the angle brackets. I tried using the escape codes for < and > as I've shown below but the text is still not visible. Is there any way to fix this or does the text in between <> still show up when the XML request is being sent?

var test = "\u003c" + "Sample" + "\u003e";

Thanks in advance!