Dispersion-boosting wideband electromagnetic transparency under extreme angles for TE-polarized waves.

Half-wave wall is the most common method of achieving electromagnetic (EM) transparency. Transmission windows can be formed when reflected waves are out of phase. Due to the interference mechanism, these windows are dependent on the frequency and incident angle of EM waves, leading to limited bandwidth, especially under extreme angles. In this letter, we propose to extend the bandwidth of the transmission window under extreme angles by utilizing dispersion. To this end, long metallic wires are embedded into the half-wave wall matrix, without increasing the physical thickness. Due to the plasma-like behavior of metallic wires under TE-polarization, the effective permittivity of the half-wave wall, rather than keeping constant, increases with frequency nonlinearly. Such a dispersion will boost wideband transparency in two aspects. On one hand, an additional transmission window will be generated where the effective permittivity equals that of the air; on the other hand, the 1st- and 2nd-order half-wave windows will be made quite closer. By tailoring the dispersion, the three windows can be merged to enable wideband transparency under extreme incident angles. A proof-of-principle prototype was designed, fabricated, and measured to verify this strategy. Both simulated and measured results show that the prototype can operate in the whole Ku-band under incident angle [70°, 85°] for TE-polarized waves. This work provides an effective method of achieving wideband EM transparency under extreme angles and may find applications in radar, communications, and others.

Tailoring transmission window in a dynamic way with a multi-degree-of-freedom.

With the rapid development of wireless technology, the revolution of tailoring transmission window in dynamic way for the next generation communication systems is urgently required. However, the degree-of-freedom for switching transmission spectra of an effective medium still needs further investigation. Here, we propose a paradigm of solving this difficult academic issue via the method of bias-voltage-driven. Leveraging PIN diodes and varactor diodes into the predesigned positions of plasmonic meta-structures, the macro-control of transmission windows switch and the detailed dispersion manipulation can be separately achieved by synergy modulation of feed networks. Both the numerical simulations and experimental verifications are conducted to support the effectiveness of the proposed method. Significantly, the proposed paradigm presents great potential for applications in intelligent radome, adaptive communication systems, and other EM scenarios with multi-degree-of-freedom.

Active Meta-Device for Dual-Transmission Windows with Tunable Angular Dispersion Characteristics.

Tailoring electromagnetic properties by meta-devices has aroused great interest with respect to manipulating light. However, the uncertainty of angular dispersion introduced by the incident waves prevents their further applications. Here, we propose a general paradigm for achieving dual-transmission windows while simultaneously eliminating the corresponding angular dispersions by a dynamic manner. The strategy of loading varactor diodes into a plasmonic meta-atom is used. In this way, the blue shifts of angular dispersion can be dynamically compensated by the red shifts introduced by the varactor diodes when driven by bias voltage. As a proof-of-principle, an active meta-atom with varactor diodes is presented. The varactor diodes embedded can independently regulate dual-transmission windows. The test results are consistent with the simulation ones. The presented meta-device is used for intelligent radome, angle-multiplexed communications, and incident-angle-insensitive equipment while providing tunable angular dispersion properties.

Transmission enhancement of a half-wave wall under extreme angles by synergy of double lorentz resonances.

The a half-wave wall is usually adopted as the transparent window for electromagnetic (EM) waves ranging from microwave to optical regimes. Due to the interference nature, the bandwidth of the half-wave wall is usually quite narrow, especially under extreme angles for TE-polarized waves. It is usually contradictory to expand the bandwidth and to keep high transmission. To overcome this contradiction, we propose to extend the transmission bandwidth of half-wave walls under extreme angles by introducing Lorentz-type resonances using metasurfaces. The impedance of the half-wave wall is firstly analyzed. To improve the impedance matching, the impedance below and above the half-wave frequency should be increased. To this end, metallic wires and I-shaped structures are incorporated into the half-wave wall as the mid-layer. Due to the Lorentz-type resonance of the metallic wire, effective permittivity below the half-wave frequency can be reduced while that above the half-wave frequency can be increased due to Lorentz-type resonance of the I-shaped structures, both under large incident angles. In this way, the impedance matching, and thus the transmission, can be improved within an extended band. A proof-of-principle prototype was designed, fabricated, and measured to verify this strategy. Both simulated and measured results show that the prototype can operate in 14.0-19.0GHZ under incident angle [70°, 85°] with significant transmission enhancement for TE-polarized waves. This work provides an effective method of enhancing the transmission of EM waves and may find applications in radomes, IR windows, and others.

Orbital angular momentum generator with multiple retroreflection channels enabled by an angle-selective metasurface.

Vortex beams carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM) have aroused great attention on account of the remarkable potential in the field of communication. It has the characteristics of higher spectrum efficiency, greater channel capacity and stronger anti-interference, which will revolutionize the wireless communications in the future. However, target tracking on a vortex generator in practical applications is becoming a challenge because the backscattering of electromagnetic (EM) waves under oblique incidence is too small for detection. Currently, the main way to solve this problem is to load an extra retroreflector such as Luneburg lens, which in turn leads to increased weights and bulky volumes. In this paper, we propose a vortex generator simultaneously with retroreflective characteristics utilizing an angle-selective metasurface. The meta-atom can achieve broadband polarization conversion under normal incidence and efficient retroreflection under oblique incidence. Without the need for an additional retroreflection phase arrangement, an OAM generator composed of such meta-atoms can be achieved in 15.0-21.0GHz under both x- and y-polarized normal incidence. Meanwhile, four retroreflection channels are opened under oblique illumination of both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) waves at 20.0GHz. Both the simulated and measured results show excellent performances. The integration of an OAM generator and retroreflector will greatly reduce the weight and volume and save in the cost of production, which will promote the development of miniaturized, multi-role, and even intelligent functional devices.

Active meta-device for angular dispersion elimination of dual-polarized transmission windows.

Metasurface-based strategy of tailoring electromagnetic waves has aroused huge attention in both academic and engineering communities owing to great potential in a large portfolio of applications. Commonly, however, the artificially designed metasurfaces are sensitive to the oblique incident waves which results in the angular dispersion and inevitably deteriorates the performances. Here, we propose a paradigm of an active meta-device to effectively eliminate the angular dispersion in two orthogonal polarization states of transmission waves. By loading varactor diodes into a transmissive meta-atom, the transmission responses for traverse electric (TE) and traverse magnetic (TM) waves are actively tunable by a voltage-driven manner. Accordingly, the blue shifts of transmission windows can be ingeniously compensated via tailoring the corresponding dispersion characteristics of varactor diodes. A triple-layer meta-atom loaded with varactor diodes is designed as a dual-polarization proof-of-principle, in which the varactor diodes can be applied to independently control two polarization states. The numerical simulations and experimental verification are in good agreement, indicating the proposed paradigm possesses the potential in versatile applications, including radome, wireless communications, and other dispersionless systems.

Multifunctional full-space metasurface controlled by frequency, polarization and incidence angle.

Multifunctional metasurfaces have exhibited considerable abilities of manipulating electromagnetic (EM) waves, especially in full-space manipulation. However, most works are implemented with functions controlled by polarization or frequency and seldom involve the incidence angle. Herein, we propose a multifunctional full-space metasurface controlled by frequency, polarization and incidence angle. A meta-atom is firstly designed. When EM waves illumine normally in the C-band, it possesses the characteristic of asymmetric transmission with high-efficient polarization conversion. In the Ku-band, both x- and y-polarized EM waves along both sides will be reflected and achieve broadband and high-efficient cross-polarization conversion. Also, when illumined obliquely, both sides can achieve efficient retroreflection at a certain frequency. As a proof of concept, a metasurface consisting of the above meta-atoms is configured as a dual orbital angular momentum (OAM) vortex beam generator and different beam deflector when illumined normally. Meanwhile, it acts as a multi-channel retroreflector when illumined obliquely. Both the simulated and measured results show excellent performances. Our findings provide a new degree of freedom to design multifunctional metasurfaces that can further promote applications.

Overcome chromatism of metasurface via Greedy Algorithm empowered by self-organizing map neural network.

Chromatism generally exists in most metasurfaces. Because of this, the deflected angle of metasurface reflectors usually varies with frequency. This inevitably hinders wide applications of metasurfaces to broadband signal scenarios. Therefore, it is of great significance to overcome chromatism of metasurfaces. With this aim, we firstly analyze necessary conditions for achromatic metasurface deflectors (AMD) and deduce the ideal dispersions of meta-atoms. Then, we establish a Self-Organizing Map (SOM) Neural Network as a prepositive model to obtain a diversified searching map, which is then applied to Greedy Algorithm to search meta-atoms with the required dispersions. Using these meta-atoms, an AMD was designed and simulated, with a thickness about 1/15 the central wavelength. A prototype was fabricated and measured. Both the simulation and measurement show that the proposed AMD can achieve an almost constant deflected angle of 22° under normal incidence within 9.5-10.5GHz. This method may find wide applications in designing functional metasurfaces for satellite communications, mobile wireless communications and others.

Hybrid metasurfaces for microwave reflection and infrared emission reduction.

Controlling of electromagnetic wave radiation is of great importance in many fields. In this work, a hybrid metasurface (HMS) is designed to simultaneously reduce the microwave reflection and the infrared emission. The HMS is composed of the metal/dielectric/metal/dielectric/metal configuration. The reflection reduction at microwave frequencies mainly results from the phase cancellation technique, while the infrared emission reduction is due to the reflection of the metal with a high filling ration in the top layer. It has been analytically indicated that reflection reduction with an efficiency larger than 10 dB can be achieved in the frequency band of 8.2-18 GHz, and this has been well verified by the simulated and experimental results. Meanwhile, the designed HMS displays a low emission performance in the infrared band, with the emissivity less than 0.27 from 3 to 14 µm. It is believed that our proposal may find the application of multispectral stealth technology.