Efficient manipulation of terahertz waves by multi-bit coding metasurfaces and further applications of such metasurfaces

Benefiting from the unprecedented superiority of coding metasurfaces at manipulating electromagnetic waves in the microwave band,in this paper,we use the Pancharatnam-Berry(PB)phase concept to propose a high-efficiency reflectivetype coding metasurface that can arbitrarily manipulate the scattering pattern of terahertz waves and implement many novel functionalities.By optimizing the coding sequences,we demonstrate that the designed 1-,2-,and 3-bit coding metasurfaces with specific coding sequences have the strong ability to control reflected terahertz waves.The two proposed1-bit coding metasurfaces demonstrate that the reflected terahertz beam can be redirected and arbitrarily controlled.For normally incident x-and y-polarized waves,a 10 d B radar cross-section(RCS)reduction can be achieved from 2.1 THz to5.2 THz using the designed 2-bit coding metasurface.Moreover,two kinds of orbital angular momentum(OAM)vortex beams with different moduli are generated by a coding metasurface using different coding sequences.Our research provides a new degree of freedom for the sophisticated manipulation of terahertz waves,and contributes to the development of metasurfaces towards practical applications.

Real-time programmable coding metasurface antenna for multibeam switching and scanning

Novel electromagnetic wave modulation by programmable dynamic metasurface promotes the device design freedom,while multibeam antennas have sparked tremendous interest in wireless communications.A programmable coding antenna based on active metasurface elements(AMSEs)is proposed in this study,allowing scanning and state switching of multiple beams in real time.To obtain the planar array phase distribution in quick response,the aperture field superposition and discretization procedures are investigated.Without the need for a massive algorithm or elaborate design,this electronically controlled antenna with integrated radiation and phase-shift functions can flexibly manipulate the scattering state of multiple beams under field-programmable gate array(FPGA)control.Simulation and experimental results show that the multiple directional beams dynamically generated in the metasurface upper half space have good radiation performance,with the main lobe directions closely matching the predesigned angles.This metasurface antenna has great potential for future applications in multitarget radar,satellite navigation,and reconfigurable intelligent metasurfaces.

Wideband radar cross section reduction based on absorptive coding metasurface with compound stealth mechanism

A scheme of combing wave absorption and phase cancellation mechanisms for widening radar cross section(RCS)reduction band is proposed.An absorptive coding metasurface implementing this scheme is derived from traditional circuit analog absorber(CAA)composed of resistive ring elements which characterize dual resonances behavior.It is constructed by replacing some of the CAA elements by another kind of resistive ring elements which is singly resonant in between the original two resonant bands and has reflection phase opposite to that of the original elements at resonance.Hence the developed metasurface achieves an improved low-RCS band over which the lower and higher sub-bands are mainly contributed by wave absorption mainly while the middle sub-band is formed by joint effect of wave absorption and antiphase cancellation mechanisms.The polarization-independent wideband RCS reduction property of the metasurface is validated by full-wave simulation results of a preliminary and an advanced design examples which employ the same element configuration but different element layout schemes as partitioned distribution and random coding.The advanced design also exhibits broadband bistatic low-RCS property and keeps a stable specular RCS reduction performance with regard to incident elevation angle up to 35◦.The advanced design is fabricated and the experimental results of the sample agrees qualitatively well with their simulated counterparts.The measured figure of merit(i.e.,low-RCS bandwidth ratio versus electrical thickness)of the sample is 40.572,which is superior to or comparable with those for most of other existing metasurface with compound RCS reduction mechanism.The proposed compound metasurface technique also features simple structure,light weight,low cost and easy fabrication compared with other techniques.This makes it promising in applications such as radar stealth and electromagnetic compatibility.

Transmissive 2-bit anisotropic coding metasurface

Coding metasurfaces have attracted tremendous interests due to unique capabilities of manipulating electromagnetic wave.However,archiving transmissive coding metasurface is still challenging.Here we propose a transmissive anisotropic coding metasurface that enables the independent control of two orthogonal polarizations.The polarization beam splitter and the orbital angular momentum(OAM)generator have been studied as typical applications of the anisotropic 2-bit coding metasurface.The simulated far field patterns illustrate that the x and y polarized electromagnetic waves are deflected into two different directions,respectively.The anisotropic coding metasurface has been experimentally verified to realize an OAM beam with l=2 of right-handed polarized wave,resulting from both contributions from linear-to-circular polarization conversion and the phase profile modulation.This work is beneficial to enrich the polarization manipulation field and develop transmissive coding metasurfaces.

An ultra-wideband 2-bit coding metasurface using Pancharatnam–Berry phase for radar cross-section reduction

An ultra-wideband 2-bit coding metasurface is designed for radar cross-section(RCS) reduction. The design process is presented in detail, in which a polarization conversion metasurface(PCM) is first proposed. The proposed PCM can realize ultra-wideband circular polarization(CP) maintaining reflection. Moreover, Pancharatnam–Berry(PB) phase will be generated in the co-polarized reflection coefficient by rotating the metallic patches in its unit cells. Thus, based on the PCM, the four coding elements of a 2-bit coding metasurface are constructed using PB phase, and an ultra-wideband PB 2-bit coding metasurface is proposed according to an appropriate coding sequence. The simulated and experimental results show that the coding metasurface has obvious advantages of wideband and polarization-insensitivity. Compared to a metallic plate of the same size, it can achieve more than 10 dB RCS reduction in the frequency band from 9.8 GHz to 42.6 GHz with a relative bandwidth of 125.2% under normal incidence with arbitrary polarizations.

Pentamode-Based Coding Metasurface for Underwater Acoustic Stealth

Coding metasurface draws amounts of research interests due to its potential for achieving sophisticated functions in wave manipulation by using simple logical unit cells with out-of-phase responses. In this paper, we present a novel acoustic coding metasurface structure for underwater sound scattering reduction based on pentamode metamaterials. The metasurface is composed of two types of hexagonal pentamode unit cells with phase responses of 0 and π respectively. The units are arranged in random 1-bit coding sequence to achieve low-scattering underwater acoustic stealth effect. Full-wave simulation results are in good accordance with the theoretical expectation. The optimized arrangement resulted in the distribution of scattered underwater acoustic waves and suppression of the far field scattering coefficient over a wide range of incident angles. We show that pentamode-based coding metasurface provides an efficient scheme to achieve underwater acoustic stealth by ultrathin structures.

Realizing complex beams via amplitude-phase digital coding metasurfaces and semidefinite relaxation optimization

Complex beams play important roles in wireless communications,radar,and satellites,and have attracted great interest in recent years.In light of this background,we present a fast and efficient approach to realize complex beams by using semidefinite relaxation(SDR)optimization and amplitude-phase digital coding metasurfaces.As the application examples of this approach,complex beam patterns with cosecant,flat-top,and double shapes are designed and verified using full-wave simulations and experimental measurements.The results show excellent main lobes and low-level side lobes and demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.Compared with previous works,this approach can solve the complex beam-forming problem more rapidly and effectively.Therefore,the approach will be of great significance in the design of beam-forming systems in wireless applications.

An ultra-wideband coding polarizer for beam control and RCS reduction

Pancharatnam–Berry(PB)phase metasurface,as a special class of gradient metasurfaces,has been paid much attention owing to the robust performance for phase control of circularly polarized waves.Herein,we present an element-based polarizer for the first step,which enables the incident electromagnetic waves into the cross-polarized waves with the relative bandwidth of 71%,and the polarization conversion ratio exceeds 90%at 6.9–14.5 GHz.Then an eight-elements coding polarizer based on the PB phase is presented for the applications on beam control and radar cross section reduction.The simulated values indicate that the reduction of radar cross section is more than 10 dB at 6–16 GHz.Our work reveals the availability of manipulating the waves,beamforming in communication systems and electromagnetic stealth,and so on.

Negative reflection and negative surface wave conversion from obliquely incident electromagnetic waves

Complete control of spatially propagating waves(PWs)and surface waves(SWs)is an ultimate goal that scientists and engineers seek for,in which negative reflection of PW and negative surface wave are two exotic phenomena.Here,we experimentally demonstrate an anisotropic digital coding metasurface capable of controlling both PWs and SWs with a single coding pattern.On the basis of the digital description of coding metasurfaces,a simple coding method is proposed to allow dual functionalities(either PW or SW manipulations)under two orthogonal polarizations at arbitrarily oblique incidences,thus improving the adaptability of digital coding metasurfaces in more practical circumstances.With elaborately designed ellipse-shaped coding particles,we experimentally demonstrate various functions under oblique incidences,including the negative reflection of PW,negative SW,anomalous reflection and their arbitrary combinations,all having good agreements with theoretical and numerical predictions.We believe that the proposed method may enable the digital coding metasurfaces to have broad applications in radar detections,wireless communications and imaging.

Broadband transmission-type 1-bit coding metasurface for electromagnetic beam forming and scanning

Coding metasurfaces make it possible to manipulate electromagnetic(EM)waves digitally by means of several discrete particles.Hence,there have been rapid advances in this field recently.Here we propose a novel design of a broadband transmission-type coding metasurface,which is valid to both x-and y-polarized EM incidences from 8.1-12.5 GHz while satisfies the requirements of 1-bit coding without changing the polarization.Two types of multi-layer coding particles with different geometrical parameters are adopted to represent the digital states"0"and"1",which are easily promoted to terahertz and optics through modifying the size scale.To verify the ability to manipulate the EM waves,we first adopt the coding metasurface to achieve broadband beam forming by converting spherical waves to plane waves and realize high-directivity pencil beam in far field with low side lobes.We further arrange the particles according to the coding sequence 010101…to steer two symmetrical beams in different directions controlled by frequencies with the maximum range of the scanning angle of 30°-50.5°.The good agreements between the simulated and measured results validate the proposed broadband coding metasurface,indicating its huge potential in communication and radar imaging systems.