Search

Chiral metamaterials have attracted significant attention in recent years due to their unique properties in both the microwave and optics regimes. However, most existing works rely on engineering the desired properties of spatial interfaces, and the concept of time-varying chirality has only recently begun to be explored. As a consequence, there is currently a lack of suitable tools for evaluating the propagation of electromagnetic (EM) waves in time-varying chiral media. As such, this paper presents the theoretical formulation for temporal reflection and transmission of EM waves in time-varying chiral media using the temporal transfer matrix method (TTMM). The developed TTMM tool will then be utilized to explore several application examples including a structure with an arbitrary temporal profile, optical activity generated from time interfaces, and anti-reflection temporal coatings. In addition, we employ a specialized finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique, known as BI-FDTD, in all the scenarios to validate the proposed theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a photoconductor-based terahertz metadevice whose transmission characteristics can be comprehensively controlled by a combination of an optical excitation and electrical bias. A metasurface with interdigitated electrodes is proposed to simultaneously support a terahertz resonance and the photoconductive effect, allowing efficient local and global dual-tuning of the carriers in the semiconductor and thus the terahertz wave, based on the simultaneous external optical and electrical stimuli. Experimental results reveal the opposite tuning trend of optical and electrical excitations, leading to the comprehensive transmission modulation of terahertz wave. Our study demonstrates a proof-of-concept device for sophisticated manipulation of terahertz radiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resonant nature and geometric scalability make metamaterials an ideal platform for an enhanced light–matter interaction over a broad frequency range. The mid-infrared (IR) spectral range is of great importance for vibrational spectroscopy of molecules, while IR metamaterials created from lithography-based planar nanostructures have been used to demonstrate enhanced molecular detection. Compared with visible and near-infrared, the relative long wavelengths of IR light make it possible to achieve three-dimensional (3D) IR metamaterials via the state-of-the-art 3D fabrication techniques. Here, we design and fabricate a 3D printed plasmonic metamaterial absorber (MMA), and by performing Fourier-transform IR spectroscopy, we demonstrate that a series of molecular fingerprint vibrations of glycine can be significantly enhanced by the high absorption mode supported by the 3D meta-atoms of the MMA. The observed enhanced IR detection can also be partially attributed to the improved accessibility offered by the 3D architecture of the MMA. In particular, due to capillary forces during the drying process, the microscale 3D printed features lead to selective analyte deposition in high-field regions, which provides another degree of freedom in the design of the 3D printed structures for surface-enhanced IR detection. Our study shows the flexibility of metastructures based on advanced 3D printing technology in tailoring the interaction between IR light and materials on a subwavelength scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metamaterials consisting of subwavelength resonators offer an exciting opportunity for realizing asymmetric transmission (AT) of linearly polarized light. However, to date, only moderate/narrow‐band AT responses have been obtained in metadevices based on stacked planar nanostructures. Here, leveraging a combination of a genetic algorithm (GA) based optimization method and a membrane projection lithography (MPL) fabrication approach, a quasi‐3D metamaterial for broadband AT of linearly polarized mid‐infrared light is demonstrated. Facilitated by the customized GA, an efficient exploration of 3D plasmonic meta‐atoms with broken mirror symmetry in the light propagation direction allows the satisfaction of the rigorous conditions for AT of linearly polarized waves over a broad wavelength range. Confirmed by surface current analysis, the observed AT behavior is attributed to the resonant coupling between the plasmonic nanostructures located on the two orthogonal walls of the MPL cavities. Incorporating an advanced inverse‐design method and a state‐of‐art fabrication technique, the methodology used in the present study provides a promising route for exploiting 3D metamaterials with sophisticated functionalities via effectively exploring the high‐dimensional parametric space offered by true 3D meta‐atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An efficient and rigorous approach to analyze the radiation from an electric dipole placed in 3-D woodpile electromagnetic bandgap material (EBG) structures consisting of layered periodic arrays of circular cylinders is presented. The response in the spectral domain of the woodpile EBGs excited by a dipole source is calculated using one-dimensional lattice sums, the 3-D transition matrix of a circular cylinder, and the generalized reflection and transmission matrices of the layered system. The closed-form expression of the radiated field is rigorously obtained by a finite integral of the spectral response. Comparisons with the far fields calculated using reciprocity both with the present approach and with a fully independent commercial EM software package are presented showing excellent agreement with the proposed method and demonstrating the high computational efficiency of the semianalytical formalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metasurfaces with independently tunable anisotropic dispersion characteristics have been designed to significantly improve the radiation efficiency of a short backfire antenna (SBFA) when placed within the antenna cavity walls. This advanced SBFA (A-SBFA) features a hexagonal aperture, which typically results in much lower aperture efficiency and increased cross polarization. However, the addition of metasurfaces leads to a higher aperture efficiency than is achievable with a conventional circular SBFA. Through careful design and optimization of the metasurface dispersion, the A-SBFA achieves high aperture efficiency across two discrete frequency bands while maintaining a relatively low height and weight. A detailed design and optimization methodology is presented here, along with the simulation studies that explore the design space and provide insight into how the antenna performance is affected as the metasurface parameters are adjusted. The A-SBFA is shown to be a promising candidate for future satellite-based antenna arrays due to its high aperture efficiency, hexagonal cavity, low weight, and low profile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a method to retrieve the effective electromagnetic parameters of a slab of anisotropic metamaterial from reflection and transmission coefficients (or scattering parameters). In this retrieval method, calculated or measured scattering parameters are employed for plane waves incident obliquely on a metamaterial slab at different angles. Useful analytical expressions are derived for extracting the homogeneous anisotropic medium parameters of a metamaterial. To validate the method, the effective permittivity and permeability tensor parameters for a composite split-ring resonator-wire array are retrieved and shown to be consistent with observations previously reported in the literature. This retrieval method is further incorporated into a genetic algorithm (GA) to synthesize an infrared zero-index-metamaterial with a wide field-of-view, demonstrating the utility of the new design approach. The anisotropic parameter retrieval algorithm, when combined with a robust optimizer such as GA, can provide a powerful design tool for exploiting the anisotropic properties in metamaterials to achieve specific angle dependant or independent responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The resonance based strong light-matter interaction in metamaterials offers unprecedented opportunities to manipulate polarization of electromagnetic waves. In this work, we fabricate a three-dimensional (3D) metamaterial consisting of 90°-twisted split-tube resonators using a 3D printing technique and demonstrate the corresponding asymmetric transmission for linearly polarized electromagnetic waves in the Ku band with near-unity polarization conversion efficiency. Experimental results reveal a 90° polarization rotation and an incident polarization angle dependent asymmetric transmission at a frequency around 15.2 GHz. The experimental results are in good agreement with simulations. Possessing the merits of both flexibility of response tailoring and ease of fabrication, the proposed 3D-printed metamaterials have great potential for compact polarization-control devices exhibiting unidirectional transmission at both microwave and terahertz frequencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of an efficient, metamaterial-based reflector antenna capable of operation at high power is presented. Metamaterial unit cells are comprised of end-loaded dipoles (ELDs) with capacitive lumped elements at their center. Enhanced power handling is realized by mitigating field enhancement through rounded edges and using appropriate high voltage capacitors as loads. The metamaterial is designed to have discrete, configurable reflection phase through choice of capacitor on the ELDs. Unit cells are fabricated and patterned to a square, flat reflector surface and configured for broadside reflection with an offset-fed horn antenna. Simulated and measured radiation patterns of the complete antenna system are presented with excellent agreement. High-power testing verifies the ability of the metasurface to withstand extreme incident electric field strengths. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper, the design of a compact dual-band antenna with operational bands centered at 1.9 and 2.5 GHz is introduced and validated numerically as well as experimentally. The proposed antenna is comprised by placing a monopole feeding antenna above an engineered multilayer metasurface (MS) which functions as an artificial ground plane. Moreover, complementary split-ring resonator structures are incorporated into the multilayer MS design to realize the dual-band operation of the proposed monopole-MS integrated antenna system. Dispersive analysis of the MS unit cell reveals the underlying radiation mechanism of the antenna. It is observed that the designed MS resonates in both frequency bands with a resonance mode pattern resembling that of the TM10 mode of a rectangular patch antenna, thereby yielding a broadside radiation pattern in both bands. The overall footprint of the antenna is only 0.062λ02, where λ0 is the free space wavelength at 1.9 GHz. Importantly, by using the proposed artificial ground plane, even with a highly miniaturized form factor, the antenna still maintains a peak gain of above 5 dBi and a front-to-back ratio higher than 6 dB within the two operational bands. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Metasurfaces and metamaterials have been explored extensively in recent years for their ability to enable a variety of innovative microwave devices. However, because their exotic properties often arise from resonant structures, the large field enhancements under high-power microwave illumination can lead to dielectric breakdown and damage to the device. In order to develop metasurfaces and metamaterials capable of being utilized in high-power microwave applications, this paper investigates techniques for reducing the maximum field enhancement factor (MFEF) in several types of structures from the literature. Starting with a simple Sievenpiper metasurface, this paper evaluates the dependence of MFEF on the structure design parameters. For more complex metasurface geometries, a genetic algorithm is demonstrated that can evolve structures that have minimal MFEF. In addition, negative-index and low-index metamaterials are evaluated for field enhancement. By optimizing for low loss and by operating in the resonance tails, metamaterials with low MFEF can be realized for high-power applications. To illustrate this, a quad-beam focusing metamaterial lens is presented with an MFEF less than 5 over the entire operating band. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A heuristic approach is presented to quantify the broadband isolation performance of nonuniform capacitively loaded electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) surfaces embedded inside a parallel plate waveguide (PPW). The approach is based on the effective mapping of the stop-band properties of the EBG to the attenuation factor (AF) of a homogeneous material slab. Subsequently, it is demonstrated that the electromagnetic wave propagation through the EBG-loaded PPW is equivalent to the propagation through a multilayered medium where each layer is characterized by a different AF. When these AFs are engineered so that their nonzero values spectrally overlap, a cumulative broadband attenuation effect can be obtained. Based on this interpretation, the broad bandgap properties that are characteristic of nonuniform capacitively loaded EBG surfaces are fully quantified. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Spatial tuning of a volumetric metamaterial introduces many new design considerations that strongly affect the performance and practicality of a resulting system implementation. This paper discusses the design rules and procedures for spatially reconfigurable metamaterial systems using a tunable near-zero-index slab with adjustable shape as a representative design example. We propose a split-ring resonator-based metamaterial, where each resonator is tuned in and out of resonance using a varactor diode to change the effective material response. The periodic, hexagonal tiles may be combined and connected in a planar spiral to form a cylindrical metamaterial panel whose radius may be arbitrarily large. Multiple panels are then stacked, with appropriate cropping, to form a volumetric metamaterial slab. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The introduction of electromagnetic (EM) media with unique field manipulation properties, collectively labelled as metamaterials, has boosted the interest toward the design, the fabrication, and the testing of artificial materials whose features can be engineered according to the applicative requirements and user objectives. In this framework, the long-term promise of reconfigurable metamaterial theory (i.e., the possibility to change the EM response of a 2-D/3-D material arbitrarily and in real time) has given the designers an extremely wide number of new degrees of freedom for the synthesis of innovative adaptive systems. Moreover, successful experimental validations of reconfigurable metamaterials in the entire EM spectrum from microwaves to optical frequencies have further stimulated academic and industrial interests in developing devices with enhanced performances, efficiency, and robustness. Nevertheless, the exploitation of reconfigurable metamaterials in commercial devices is still an open problem with several challenges from both the theoretical and technological viewpoints. This paper is then aimed at reviewing the latest advances on reconfigurable metamaterial engineering from the methodological perspective also providing a comprehensive and balanced survey on latest concepts, current trends, and envisaged future developments on this active field of research. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Low-profile and light-weight coatings that offer comprehensive manipulation of the electromagnetic scattering for finite-length objects are highly desirable, but not yet achieved, for applications including camouflaging, deceptive sensing, radar cognition control, and defense security. Here, for the first time, the theory, practical design, and experimental demonstration of quasi-three-dimensional and angle-tolerant electromagnetic illusion coatings are presented which have been enabled by ultrathin single-layer functional metasurfaces. By controlling the multiple Mie scattering coefficients using the tangential and non-vanishing radial electromagnetic responses of the metasurface, the quasi-two-dimensional coating transforms the electromagnetic perception of one object to mimic that of another which has been pre-selected by the designer. The illusion coating, which is homogeneous but anisotropic, is realized using hundreds of composite electric and magnetic sub-wavelength unit cells operating at frequencies away from their resonance. Two different prototypes of the metasurface illusion coatings were fabricated and characterized, demonstrating very good camouflaging performance for finite-length dielectric as well as conducting objects within a field-of-view up to ±10° off normal. This work paves the way for practical artificially engineered material coatings with exotic and versatile scattering control capabilities that would enable a wide range of applications throughout the entire electromagnetic spectrum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method is presented that allows for the efficient design of capacitively loaded finite-size electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structures, which can target a wide range of design objectives. The design flexibility is achieved by adding arbitrary nonuniform capacitive loading to an underlying periodic EBG structure. This system can be interpreted as having an effective aperiodic structure, which allows more design flexibility in terms of bandgap engineering. To choose the proper capacitances, a powerful global optimization technique known as the covariance matrix adaptation evolutionary strategy is employed that is aided by a fast port-reduction strategy. This approach avoids the need to carry out multiple computationally expensive full-wave simulations during the course of the optimization process by requiring only a single full-wave simulation be performed prior to initiating the optimization. To demonstrate the utility of this method, the capacitive loading of a mushroom-type EBG structure in a parallel-plate waveguide is optimized to reduce transmission from 2.4 to 7 GHz. This design was fabricated and the measured response was found to be in good agreement with the simulations. Using the same initial full-wave simulation, another structure was designed to improve isolation at the 2.4-, 3.6-, and 5-GHz WLAN bands to below -\22 dB. An additional set of structures are also designed using capacitively loaded mushroom-type EBG surfaces without placing them inside of a parallel-plate waveguide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A high-gain reduced-profile antenna is designed by combining the effects of a near-zero-index volumetric metamaterial lens and an artificial magnetic conducting (AMC) ground plane. The AMC/metalens antenna design presented here has 20% reduced height over an equivalent metalens antenna with conventional metallic ground plane at the cost of reduced peak directivity and pattern bandwidth. Both the metamaterial unit cells and the mushroom-type AMC structure are designed independently and retuned in the presence of the other for optimal performance. The lens collimates the electromagnetic radiation of a dipole feed by refraction as well as via a Fabry-Perot cavity effect, with resulting gain and patterns that are better than either mechanism can achieve individually. Full wave simulations of the entire metamaterial and AMC structure with a feed dipole agree well with measurements of the fabricated design. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A low-profile high-gain unidirectional antenna is proposed and demonstrated using both metamaterial (MM) and substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW) technologies. First, the leaky modes supported by a grounded anisotropic slab are studied. These investigations reveal that a grounded slab consisting of an anisotropic zero/low index material can provide an extremely low value for the real part of the propagation constant of the leaky mode, thereby facilitating stable unidirectional broadside radiation over a wide frequency range. The truncation effect of the slab is then investigated through full-wave simulations, which is found to be beneficial for a practical implementation of dispersive metamaterials. Finally, to validate the proposed concept, a subwavelength end-loaded dipole array is designed to realize the required anisotropic zero-index property and is applied to a SIW fed longitudinal slot antenna for the 5.8 GHz wireless local area network (WLAN) band. Measurements of the fabricated antenna prototype are shown to be in strong agreement with simulation results, thus confirming the proposed antenna design. The resulting antenna is only 0.12 \lambda thick, all while accomplishing a broadside gain of more than 10 dBi and a front-to-back ratio larger than 26 dB, which is \sim \7 dB and \sim \10 dB higher than that of the SIW fed slot alone, respectively. The -\10 dB impedance bandwidth is more than 9% both with and without the presence of the MM coating. The proposed technique offers a means for realizing low-cost and low-profile unidirectional antennas with moderate bandwidth. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent advancements in transformation optics (TO) and metamaterials have inspired tremendous interest in the electromagnetic community, creating a variety of novel antennas with enhanced performance, such as broad bandwidth, large gain, and high polarization efficiency. Although there could be infinitely many transformations for designing a given device, most of them result in rather complicated material compositions. This paper compares two recently introduced TO techniques, both of which lead to much simpler material requirements. In particular, a linear geometrical transformation or a quasi-conformal mapping was employed to design multi-beam collimating lenses, which possess either homogeneous or isotropic constituent materials. A systematic comparison is made for the first time between these two TO design approaches for a specific example of a quad-beam focusing lens, where the advantages and disadvantages of each method are clearly identified. Full-wave numerical simulations were performed to demonstrate the well-collimated beams produced by the TO lenses designed by either transformation. The characteristics of the two lens antennas, such as radiation pattern and bandwidth, were contrasted, providing valuable guidance on design tradeoffs for a specific application. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Metasurfaces offer the potential to realize large SWaP (size, weight, and power) reduction over conventional optical elements for their ability to achieve comparable functionalities in ultrathin geometries. Moreover, metasurfaces designed with phase change materials offer the potential to go beyond what is achievable by conventional optics by enabling multiple functionalities in a single reconfigurable meta-device. However, designing a single metasurface geometry that simultaneously achieves multiple desired functionalities while meeting all bandwidth requirements and fabrication constraints is a very challenging problem. Fortunately, this challenge can be overcome by the use of state-of-the-art multi-objective optimization algorithms which are well-suited for the inverse-design of multifunctional meta-devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phase-gradient metasurfaces enable designers to tailor the behavior of electromagnetic waves at surfaces by exploiting the generalized form of Snell’s law. This ability has led to the investigation of metalenses which have the potential to significantly reduce the size, weight, and power (SWaP) of conventional optical systems. While traditional lenses are made from individual glasses, metalenses are comprised of patterned meta-atom unit cells which are arranged in such a way so as to give the metalens its desired behavior. Therefore, any metalens’s performance is ultimately determined by that of its underlying unit cell components. However, designing meta-atoms that simultaneously achieve high performance over wide frequency bandwidths and fields-of-view is an extremely challenging problem that is best addressed with powerful optimization and inverse-design techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on the detailed design and experimental demonstration of a metamaterial-enabled low-sidelobe horn antenna (metahorn) based on principles similar to those of earlier soft horn antennas. The target application is a linearly polarized feed horn in the super-extended C-band (3.4–6.725 GHz) for communication satellite reflector antennas. The paper describes the detailed design and manufacturing of the E-plane metamaterial liner (metaliner) based on a freestanding wire grid without the need for a dielectric substrate material. The measured copolarized and cross-polarized antenna patterns from the feed horn demonstrate over an octave pattern bandwidth with negligible loss. The results show similar bandwidth with lower sidelobes and backlobes than those of the trifurcated horn that is currently used as the standard C-band feed for single linear polarization. This demonstration shows promise for lightweight metamaterial horns to replace heavy and expensive C-band corrugated horns. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Metamaterials have been used in many different configurations to enhance the radiation properties of antennas. However, the vast majority of these metamaterial applications only consider linearly polarized antennas. This paper discusses the theory, design, implementation, and measurements of a far-field collimating lens for use with a circularly-polarized crossed-dipole antenna constructed from a 3D-volumetric metamaterial slab. Zero-index materials (ZIM) and low-index materials (LIM) cause the magnitude and phase of the radiated field across the face of the lens to be distributed uniformly, increasing the broadside gain over the feed antenna alone. Full-wave simulations were used in design of the lens, and a prototype metamaterial lens (meta-lens) was constructed and measured to verify the theoretical predictions. The meta-lens was found to increase the measured directivity of a crossed-dipole feed antenna by more than 6 dB, in good agreement with numerical simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Metamaterial surfaces (metasurfaces) with a low effective index of refraction have been recently proposed for application in the design of hybrid-mode horn antennas, such as soft and hard horns. Here we explore designs of several metasurfaces and their use as liners for coating the interior walls of horn antennas. The design process combines the genetic algorithm optimization technique with a full-wave electromagnetic solver to create dispersion-engineered metamaterials that possess customized surface impedance properties. A metamaterial parameter extraction technique is developed and employed in the optimization process, which is based on the surface impedance expressions for a homogeneous slab backed by a perfectly conducting ground plane illuminated at near grazing incidence. The optimized metasurface is found to be equivalent to a low index metamaterial with a dispersion that can improve the performance of conventional horn antennas over the entire K_u-band while introducing negligible losses. We conclude with a numerical study of a conical horn antenna whose interior is lined with a low index metasurface. The far-field radiation patterns and aperture field distributions confirm hybrid-mode operation over a wide bandwidth, validating the proposed metasurface design methodology. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A novel methodology is introduced for the design synthesis of thin planar realizations of volumetric high-impedance or artificial magnetic conducting surfaces (AMC). The design synthesis involves optimization of two different metallic frequency selective surface (FSS) type structures printed on each side of a thin dielectric substrate material. This technique eliminates the need for a complete metallic backplane common in conventional AMC designs, making use of the same dielectric substrate for two high-impedance surfaces; one on each side. Optimization of the FSS unit cell geometries is carried out with a robust genetic algorithm (GA) technique that is combined with a full-wave periodic finite element boundary integral (PFEBI) electromagnetic simulation code for fast and accurate optimization of desired AMC performance at a single frequency or over multiple frequency bands. Several examples of thin AMC ground planes are optimized for use in the X-band. Additional design examples that provide AMC behavior on one side and absorber behavior on the other are also provided. Lastly, an example illustrating the utility of the double-sided AMC separator structure is shown for a design targeting the standard Wi-Fi frequencies of 2.4 GHz and 5.2 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A novel methodology is presented for the design synthesis of matched impedance thin planar composite magneto-dielectric metasurfaces. The design synthesis involves optimizing thin, metallo-dielectric metasurfaces comprised of a periodic array of electrically small and rotationally symmetric metallic unit cells which are sandwiched between two thin dielectric layers and backed by a perfectly conducting ground plane. Optimization of the structures is carried out with a genetic algorithm (GA) to obtain a design with electromagnetic properties that are equivalent to a desired matched-impedance homogeneous medium of the same thickness. Optimized design results demonstrate the effectiveness of this new technique in synthesizing thin planar composite matched-impedance magneto-dielectric metasurfaces (MIMDM). To validate the approach, full-wave simulations of the actual metamaterial structure were compared with results obtained by employing an equivalent homogeneous effective medium and found to be in excellent agreement. Several designs are optimized with targeted applications such as substrates for miniaturized patch antennas and electromagnetic absorbing materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metamaterials provide an unprecedented ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves and are an enabling technology for new devices ranging from flat lenses that focus light beyond the diffraction limit to coatings capable of cloaking an object. Nevertheless, narrow bandwidths and high intrinsic losses arising from the resonant properties of metamaterials have raised doubts about their usefulness. New design approaches seek to turn the perceived disadvantages of dispersion into assets that enhance a device's performance. Here we employ dispersion engineering of metamaterial properties to enable specific device performance over usable bandwidths. In particular, we design metamaterials that considerably improve conventional horn antennas over greater than an octave bandwidth with negligible loss and advance the state of the art in the process. Fabrication and measurement of a metahorn confirm its broadband, low-loss performance. This example illustrates the power of clever implementation combined with dispersion engineering to bring metamaterials into their full potential for revolutionizing practical devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recently introduced transformation-electromagnetics techniques provide a new methodology for designing devices that possess novel wave-material interaction properties. They are based on the form invariance of Maxwell's equations under coordinate transformations. These methods provide an extremely versatile set of design tools that employ spatial-coordinate transformations, where the compression and dilation of space in different coordinate directions are interpreted as appropriate scalings of the material parameters. The most famous transformation-optics device is the cloak of invisibility. However, a wide variety of other devices are also possible, such as field concentrators, polarization rotators, beam splitters, beam collimators, and flat lenses. In this paper, an overview of transformation-electromagnetics device design techniques is presented. The paper begins by introducing the underlying design principle behind transformation electromagnetics. Several novel transformation-based device designs are then summarized, starting with electromagnetic-cloaks that have spherical shell or cylindrical annular shapes. More general cloaking designs of noncircular annular geometries are treated, and the application of cloaking to RF/microwave antenna shielding is also discussed. Following this, device designs that employ transformations that have discontinuities on the domain boundary are presented. Unlike those used for cloaks, this type of transformation is capable of modifying the fields outside of the device. Examples of this type of transformation-electromagnetics device are presented, which include flat near-field and far-field focusing lenses, wave collimators for embedded sources (e.g., antennas), polarization splitters and rotators, and right-angle beam benders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An improved "smart" interpolation approach known as model-based parameter estimation (MBPE) is applied to the wide-band interpolation of periodic method of moments (PMM) impedance matrices for normal and oblique incidence cases. Prior to interpolation, easy to calculate but hard to interpolate, phase terms are removed from the impedance matrices. An efficient spectral-domain PMM formulation is introduced for the accelerated analysis of frequency selective surface (FSS) problems with a large number of unknowns, employing a one dimensional O(N log N) FFT-based method to speed up the computation of matrix-vector products within the bi-conjugate gradient (BCG) iterative, solver, which is made possible by the asymmetric multilevel block-Toeplitz structure of the impedance-matrix. The MBPE interpolation algorithm provides a faster matrix fill time than the brute force method and is comparable or even faster than the 2-D FFT-based method for a large number of unknowns. It also has the advantage that it can be applied to non-uniform gridding cases. The accuracy and efficiency of the proposed techniques for large FSS problems are demonstrated by several design examples for both the normal and oblique incidence cases. We also apply this efficient analysis tool to the design of multiband single-layer FSS filters and artificial magnetic conductors (AMC) comprised of a 2-D periodic arrangement of convoluted metallic strips in the shape of a Hilbert curve. The multiband properties of the Hilbert curve FSS filters are studied for different iteration orders (i.e., different degrees of space-filling). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We utilize the properties of aligned nematic liquid crystal (LC) cells in the design of: (i) a new type of metamaterial whose index of refraction is tunable from negative, through zero, to positive values and (ii) micron-scale metallodielectric and all-dielectric tunable frequency selective surfaces (FSS5). The metamaterial is constructed by randomly doping a liquid crystal substrate with coated dielectric (non-magnetic) spheres and can be utilized over a large spectral range. FSSs with a liquid crystal superstrate are synthesized using conventional and genetic algorithm methods to exhibit broadband tunable filter characteristics at mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths. These LC tunable FSS structures can be used to develop a new class of infrared/optical switches for terahertz applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chiral media engineered for applications at microwave frequencies can be described as metamaterials composed of randomly oriented helices (with sizes typically less than a wavelength) embedded within an achiral background that is characterized by its permittivity and permeability. Chiral metamaterials embody properties of magnetoelectric coupling and polarization rotation. Chiral media are also highly dispersive and no effective full-wave time domain formulation has been available to simulate transient propagation through such an important class of metamaterials. A new finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique is introduced in this paper to model the interaction of an electromagnetic wave with isotropic dispersive chiral metamaterials, based on the implementation of a wavefield decomposition technique in conjunction with the piecewise-linear recursive convolution method. This formulation represents the first of its kind in the FDTD community. The FDTD model is validated by considering a one-dimensional example and comparing the simulations with available analytical results. Moreover, the FDTD technique is also used to investigate the propagation of electromagnetic waves through multilayered metamaterial slabs that include dispersive chiral and double-negative media. Hence, this model enables the investigation of complex dispersive metamaterials with magnetoelectric coupling and double-negative behavior as well as facilitates the exploitation of their unique properties for a variety of possible applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A methodology is presented for the design synthesis of metamaterials that act as thin multifrequency artificial magnetic conductors. These structures are realized by placing a frequency-selective surface above a conventional prefect electric conductor, separated by a thin dielectric layer. The frequency-selective surface design is optimized using a micro-genetic algorithm to operate at multiple, narrow frequency bands. Two examples of genetically engineered multiband high-impedance frequency-selective surfaces (that is, artificial magnetic conductors) are presented and discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 38: 400–403, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.11073 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose to implement a nonmetallic low-loss cloak for the infrared range from identical chalcogenide glass resonators. Based on transformation optics for cylindrical objects, our approach does not require metamaterial response to be homogeneous and accounts for the discrete nature of elementary responses governed by resonator shape, illumination angle, and inter-resonator coupling. Air fractions are employed to obtain the desired distribution of the cloak effective parameters. The effect of cloaking is verified by full-wave simulations of the true multiresonator structure. The feasibility of cloak fabrication is demonstrated by prototyping glass grating structures with the dimensions characteristic for the cloak resonators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is proposed that electromagnetic cloaks be used as effective shielding devices which enable improved antenna performance in highly scattering, multiple-antenna environments. In multiple frequency, multiple-antenna environments, each antenna is enclosed in a dispersive cloak that is designed to operate at the transmitting frequencies of the neighboring antennas. The loading effect of large objects in close proximity to a radiating antenna can be removed by enclosing the scatterer with a cloak. Application of cloaks to microwave antenna shielding only requires narrow band performance, which can be realized using currently available metamaterials technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A full-wave analysis technique based on the finite element-boundary integral method is developed and used to rigorously treat the scattering from periodically structured metamaterials incorporating anisotropic liquid crystals (LCs) and dispersive materials. Reconfiguration of the negative-index metamaterials is achieved by controlling the magnetic resonance via tuning permittivity of the embedded anisotropic LCs. Numerical results show that the refractive index of the metamaterials can be reconfigured by tuning the director orientation of anisotropic LCs or by using temperature-dependent LCs. The design configurations and their characteristics in the near- and the mid-infrared ranges are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We provide the first experimental demonstration of the handedness dependent electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in chiral metamaterials during the interaction with circularly polarized waves. The observed chiral-sensitive EIT phenomena arise from the coherent excitation of a non-radiative mode in the component split ring resonators (SRRs) produced by the corresponding Born−Kuhn type (radiative) resonators that are responsible for the pronounced chirality. The coherent coupling, which is dominated by the bonding and antibonding resonances of the Born−Kuhn type resonators, leads to an extremely steep dispersion for a circularly polarized wave of predefined handedness. Accordingly, retrieved effective medium parameters from simulated results further reveal a difference of 80 in the group indices for left- and right-handed circularly polarized waves at frequencies within the EIT window, which can potentially result in handedness-sensitive pulse delays. These chiral metamaterials which enable a handedness dependent EIT effect may provide more degrees of freedom for designing circular polarization based communication devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerging field of transformation optics, with its powerful ability to manipulate and control electromagnetic waves, represents a promising new approach to tailor the radiation properties of antennas. However, previously reported source transformation designs have been severely limited by their narrow operating bandwidth, as well as the number and directions of radiated beams. In this paper, we design, fabricate, and characterize a new type of broadband transformation optics lens capable of converting the radiation from an embedded isotropic source into any desired number of highly directive beams pointing in arbitrary directions. We exploit the dispersive properties of the metamaterial building blocks to greatly enhance the impedance bandwidth of the embedded antenna. Moreover, the simple material parameters required by the demonstrated transformation make it amenable to the development of practical beam collimating devices that operate in both the microwave and the optical regimes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conventional metallic mirrors flip the spin of a circularly polarized wave upon normal incidence by inverting the direction of the propagation vector. Altering or maintaining the spin state of light waves carrying data is a critical need to be met at the brink of photonic information processing. In this work, we report a chiral metamaterial mirror that strongly absorbs a circularly polarized wave of one spin state and reflects that of the opposite spin in a manner conserving the circular polarization. A circular dichroic response in reflection as large as ∼0.5 is experimentally observed in a near-infrared wavelength band. By imaging a fabricated pattern composed of the enantiomeric unit cells, we directly visualize the two key features of our engineered meta-mirrors, namely the chiral-selective absorption and the polarization preservation upon reflection. Beyond the linear regime, the chiral resonances enhance light-matter interaction under circularly polarized excitation, greatly boosting the ability of the metamaterial to perform chiral-selective signal generation and optical imaging in the nonlinear regime. Chiral meta-mirrors, exhibiting giant chiroptical responses and spin-selective near-field enhancement, hold great promise for applications in polarization sensitive electro-optical information processing and biosensing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]