Guided and Space Waves Multiplexed Metasurface for Advanced Electromagnetic Functionalities in Microwave Region

Abstract

Nowadays, metasurfaces have attracted considerable attention due to their promising and advanced control of electromagnetic (EM) waves. However, it is still challenging to shape guided waves into desired free-space mode, while simultaneously manipulating spatial incident waves using a single metasurface. Herein, a class of metasurfaces capable of multiplexing guided and space waves is proposed to achieve advanced EM functionalities in microwave regions, which can find great application potentials in radar systems, wireless communications, and wireless power transfer (WPT). The proposed metasurface, composed of specially designed meta-atoms with polarization-dependent radiation and reflection properties, provides the capability to fully manipulate complex amplitude of guided waves and reflection phase of space incident wave independently and simultaneously, thus enabling arbitrary radiation and reflection functionalities without encountering crosstalk issues. As examples of potential applications, three advanced EM functionalities operating in both far-field and near-field regions are presented: low-sidelobe microwave antenna with reduced radar cross section (RCS), multifunctional WPT, and feed multiplexed holograms, respectively. The far-field characteristics of the low sidelobe level antennas showing radiated beams at ± 30° together with RCS reduction under arbitrarily polarized incidences are validated by both simulations and measurements. A good agreement between experiments and simulations is also observed for the near-field intensity distribution of the hologram, which further validates the feasibility of near-field shaping. The findings significantly expand the capabilities of metasurfaces in manipulating EM waves and stimulate advanced multifunctional metadevices facing more challenging and diversified application demands.