arXiv subjects

Alireza Nikzamir

Publications and source records attributed to Alireza Nikzamir.

14 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

One-transmitter Multiple-receiver Wireless Power Transfer System Using an Exceptional Point of Degeneracy

Robust transfer efficiency against the various operating conditions in a wireless power transfer system remains a fundamentally important challenge. This challenge becomes even more critical when transferring power to groups of inductively coupled receivers. We propose a method for efficient wireless power transfer to multiple receivers exploiting the concept of exceptional points of degeneracy (EPD) in a self-oscillating system. In previous studies based on PT symmetry, a receiver's operation has been divided into two strong and weak coupling regimes, and the power transfer efficiency is constant in the strong coupling regime when varying the coupling factor. Here, the concept of strong and weak coupling and constant power efficiency is extended to a system of multiple receivers that do not follow PT symmetry. The transmitter has saturable nonlinear gain and the EPD is analyzed when the system oscillates after reaching saturation. We show that the important feature to have a roughly constant power efficiency, independently of the positions of the receivers, is the existence of an EPD that separates the weak and strong regimes. Our proposed method demonstrates a system with less sensitivity to the coupling change than a conventional system without EPD when the receivers and their couplings to the transmitter are not necessarily identical.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

Array oscillator in coupled waveguides with nonlinear gain and radiation resistances saturating at exceptional point

A periodically loaded waveguide composed of periodic discrete nonlinear gain and radiating elements supports a stable oscillation regime related to the presence of an exceptional point of degeneracy (EPD). After reaching saturation, the EPD in the system establishes the oscillation frequency. We demonstrate a synchronization regime at a stable oscillation frequency, resulting in uniform saturated gain across the array and uniform radiating power. Unlike conventional one-dimensional cavity resonances, the oscillation frequency is independent of the array length. Our investigations further show that when small-signal gain is non-uniformly distributed across the array, the saturated gain results in having a uniform distribution at a gain value that generates an EPD. Experimental validation using the measured board confirmed that the system saturates at an EPD, with a measured spectrum exhibiting very low phase noise. This low noise allows for operation at a clean oscillation frequency. Additionally, the measured uniform power across the array corresponds to the simulation results. The proposed scheme can pave the way for a new generation of high-power radiating arrays with distributed active elements.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2024

Exceptional Points in Gyrator-Based Circuit and Nonlinear High-Sensitivity Oscillator

We present a scheme for high-sensitive oscillators based on an exceptional point of degeneracy (EPD) in a circuit made of two LC resonators coupled by a gyrator. The frequency of oscillation is very sensitive to perturbations of a circuit element, like a capacitor. We show conditions that lead to an EPD, assuming one of the two resonators is composed of an inductor and a capacitor of negative values. The EPD occurrence and sensitivity to perturbations in the linear case are demonstrated by showing that the eigenfrequency bifurcation around the EPD is described by the relevant Puiseux (fractional power) series expansion. We also investigate the effect of small losses in the system and show that they lead to instability. We fabricate the circuit, and exploit its instability and nonlinearity, observing experimentally stable self-oscillations under the saturated regime. We measure the circuit's sensitivity to a small capacitor perturbation. A shift in frequency of oscillation after saturation is well detectable with very distinct spectral peaks with 10 Hz linewidth, clean until -70 dB from the peak value. The sensitivity is (i) higher than the one of a comparable simple LC linear resonator, (ii) comparable or better than other published EPD circuits, and (iii) applicable to both negative and positive values of the capacitance perturbation, contrary to what happens in PT-symmetric circuits. The proposed scheme can pave the way for a new generation of high-sensitive sensors to measure slight variations in physical, chemical or biological quantities.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2023

Exceptional Point Degeneracy as Desirable Operation Point of Oscillator Array with Discrete Nonlinear Gain and Radiating Elements

An oscillator array prefers to operate at an exceptional point of degeneracy (EPD) occurring in a waveguide periodically loaded with discrete nonlinear gain and radiating elements. The system maintains a steady-state degenerate mode of oscillation at a frequency of 3 GHz, even when the small-signal nonlinear gain values are nonuniform along the array. Contrarily to the original expectation of zero phase shift associated to the designed EPD using small-signal gain, after reaching saturation, the time domain signal in consecutive unit cells displays a $π$ phase shift. Hence, we demonstrate that the saturated system oscillates at a distinct EPD, associated to a $π$ phase shift between consecutive cells, than the one at which the system was originally designed using small-signal gain. This new EPD at which the nonlinear system is landing is associated to higher power efficiency. Finally, we demonstrate that the oscillation frequency is independent of the length of the array, contrarily to what happens ordinary oscillating systems based on one-dimensional cavity resonances. These findings may have a high impact on high-power radiating arrays with distributed active elements.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Time Modulation to Manage and Increase the Power Harvested From External Vibrations

We investigate how a single resonator with a time-modulated component extracts power from an external ambient source. However, the collected power is largely dependent on the precise choice of the modulation signal frequency. We focus on the power absorbed from external vibration using a one degree-of-freedom mechanical resonator where the damper has a time-varying component. We show that time modulation can make a significant difference in the amount of harvested power, leading to more than 10 times enhancement with respect to an analogous system without time modulation. We also find that a narrow band pair of peak and dip in the spectrum of the absorbed power occurs because of the presence of an exceptional point of degeneracy (EPD). In this narrow frequency range, the delay between the damper modulating signal and the external vibrating signal largely affects the collected power. The high frequency-selectivity of EPD-induced power management could potentially be used in sensing and spectrometer applications.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2022

Pulse Generation Based on a Microstrip Circuit with Fourth Order Degenerate Band Edge

A pulse generation scheme is proposed based on a structured resonance in a cavity where the non-conventional energy distribution is concentrated in its middle part. The cavity is first used as an oscillator during the energy charging step and when a switch is activated the signal is extracted from its center. The key component of the proposed scheme is the periodic microstrip waveguide with a fourth-order degenerate band edge (DBE) of its wavenumber-frequency dispersion diagram. The DBE is an exceptional point degeneracy condition that is responsible for the energy to be localized at the cavity center and that can also have the quality factor easily destroyed by a perturbation. The waveguide is designed to have a DBE frequency of 2.86 GHz and produces pulses of approximately 0.1 V peak and 1.1 ns width.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2022

Highly Sensitive Coupled Oscillator Based on an Exceptional Point of Degeneracy and Nonlinearity

We propose a scheme for obtaining highly-sensitive oscillators in a coupled-resonator system with an exceptional point of degeneracy (EPD) and a small instability. The oscillator with the exceptional degeneracy is realized by using two coupled resonators with an almost balanced small-signal gain and loss, that saturates due to nonlinear effects of the active component, resulting in an oscillation frequency that is very sensitive to a perturbation of the circuit. Two cases are investigated, with two parallel LC resonators with balanced small-signal gain and loss that are either coupled wirelessly by mutual inductance or coupled-wired by a capacitor. This paper demonstrates theoretically and experimentally the conditions to obtain a second-order EPD oscillator and analyzes the ultrasensitivity of the oscillation frequency to components' perturbation, including the case of asymmetric perturbation that breaks PT-symmetry. We discuss the effects of nonlinearity on the performance of the oscillator and how the proposed scheme improves the sensing's sensitivity of perturbations. In contrast to previous methods, our proposed degenerate oscillator can sense positive or negative changes of a circuit component. The degenerate oscillator circuit may find applications in various areas such as ultrasensitive sensors, tunable oscillators and modulators.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2022

Third Order Modal Exceptional Degeneracy in Waveguides with Glide-Time Symmetry

The dispersion of a three-way waveguide is engineered to exhibit exceptional modal characteristics. Two coupled waveguides with Parity-Time (PT) symmetry have been previously demonstrated to exhibit second order exceptional points of degeneracy (EPDs). In this work, we introduce and investigate a particular class of EPDs, applicable from radio frequency to optical wavelengths, whereby three coupled waveguides satisfy Glide-Time (GT) symmetry to exhibit a third order modal degeneracy with a real-valued wavenumber. GT symmetry involves glide symmetry of lossless/gainless components of the waveguide in addition to changing the sign of passive/active elements while applying a glide symmetry operation. This GT-symmetry condition allows three Floquet-Bloch eigenmodes of the structure to coalesce to a real-valued wavenumber at a single frequency, in addition of having one branch of the dispersion diagram with a purely real wavenumber. The proposed scheme may have applications including but not limited to distributed amplifiers, radiating arrays, and sensors, from radio frequency to optics.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2021

Experimental Demonstration of Sixth Order Degenerate Band Edge in Coupled Microstrip Waveguides

We show the physical realization and experimental demonstration of an exceptional point of 6th order degeneracy in a triple ladder (or three-way) microwave waveguide realized using three coupled microstrips on a grounded dielectric substrate. This threeway waveguide supports six Bloch eigenmodes and all coalesce onto a degenerate single eigenmode at a given frequency. The three-way waveguide is gainless, and this exceptional point is associated to a vanishing group velocity and its multiple derivatives. Indeed the wavenumber-frequency dispersion diagram, that we call 6th order degenerate band edge (6DBE) has six coalescing branches. We provide the experimental verification of a 6th order exceptional point by evaluating the degenerate wavenumber-frequency dispersion diagram from the measurement of scattering parameters of a six-port unit cell. We also show the resonant behavior of a cavity made of the three-way waveguide with finite length. The unique properties of 6DBE can be exploited in designing innovative high-Q resonators, oscillators, filters, and pulse shaping devices.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2021

Enhanced Sensitivity of Degenerate System Made of Two Unstable Resonators Coupled by Gyrator Operating at an Exceptional Point

We demonstrate that a circuit comprising two unstable LC resonators coupled via a gyrator supports an exceptional point of degeneracy (EPD) with purely real eigenfrequency. Each of the two resonators includes either a capacitor or an inductor with a negative value, showing purely imaginary resonance frequency when not coupled to the other via the gyrator. With external perturbation imposed on the system, we show analytically that the resonance frequency response of the circuit follows the square-root dependence on perturbation, leading to possible sensor applications. Furthermore, the effect of small losses in the resonators is investigated, and we show that losses lead to instability. In addition, the EPD occurrence and sensitivity are demonstrated by showing that the relevant Puiseux fractional power series expansion describes the eigenfrequency bifurcation near the EPD. The EPD has the great potential to enhance the sensitivity of a sensing system by orders of magnitude. Making use of the EPD in the gyrator-based circuit, our results pave the way to realize a new generation of high-sensitive sensors to measure small physical or chemical perturbations.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2021

Triple Ladder Lumped Circuit with Sixth Order Modal Exceptional Degeneracy

We introduce a circuit topology based on a simple triple-ladder circuit realized with lumped reactive components that provides a sixth order degenerate band-edge (6DBE). The 6DBE is a special kind of sixth-order exceptional point of degeneracy in a lossless and gainless periodic ladder. This degeneracy provides a very flat band edge in the phase-frequency dispersion diagram. The proposed topology exhibits unique structured resonance features associated with a high loaded Q-factor. We investigate the Floquet-Bloch modes in an infinite-length periodic triple-ladder and their dispersion relation using the S parameter formalism. We also provide the approximate analytic expressions of the eigenmodes and dispersion relation around the degenerate point based on the Puiseux series expansion. We investigate the filtering characteristics of a finite-length structure terminated with loads to highlight the special properties of the 6DBE compared to ladders with regular band edge (RBE) and fourth order degenerate band edge (DBE). The circuit framework introduced here with a 6DBE can be exploited in designing novel high Q-factor oscillators, filters, sensors, and pulse shaping networks.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2021

Experimental Demonstration of a New Oscillator Concept Based on Degenerate Band Edge in Microstrip Circuit

The first experimental demonstration of an oscillator based on a periodic, resonant microstrip circuit with a degenerate band edge (DBE) is presented. The DBE is a fourth-order exceptional degeneracy of the eigenmodes in a lossless periodic waveguide that is visible in the wavenumber-frequency dispersion diagram, and the periodic microstrip behaves as a frequency selective medium. The presence of the DBE condition and the associated DBE resonance allow for a stable, single-mode oscillation as well as stability with varying the load resistance.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2021

Exceptional Degeneracy in a Waveguide Periodically Loaded with Discrete Gain and Radiation Loss Elements

We demonstrate that a periodic waveguide comprising of uniform lossless segments together with discrete gain and radiating elements supports exceptional points of degeneracy (EPDs). We provide analytical expressions for all possible conditions that guarantee the occurrence of an EPD, i.e., the coalescence of eigenvalues and eigenvectors. We show that EPDs are not only achieved using symmetric gain and radiation periodic loading, but they are also obtained using asymmetric gain and radiation loss conditions. We illustrate the characteristics of the degenerate electromagnetic modes, showing the dispersion diagram and discussing the tunability of the EPD frequency. We show a special condition, we refer to it as parity-time (PT)-glide symmetry, which leads to a degeneracy that is occurring at all frequencies of operation. The class of EPDs proposed in this work is very promising for many applications that incorporate discrete-distributed coherent sources and radiation-loss elements; operating in the vicinity of such special degeneracy conditions leads to potential performance enhancement in a variety of microwave and optical resonators, antennas, and devices and can be extended to a new class of active integrated antenna arrays and radiating laser arrays.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2020

Experimental Demonstration of Exceptional Points of Degeneracy in Linear Time Periodic Systems and Exceptional Sensitivity

We present the experimental demonstration of the occurrence of exceptional points of degeneracy (EPDs) in a single resonator by introducing a linear time-periodic variation of one of its components, in contrast to EPDs in parity time (PT)-symmetric systems that require two coupled resonators with precise values of gain and loss. In the proposed scheme, only the tuning of the modulation frequency is required that is easily achieved in electronic systems. The EPD is a point in a system parameters' space at which two or more eigenstates coalesce, and this leads to unique properties not occurring at other non-degenerate operating points. We show theoretically and experimentally the existence of a second order EPD in a time-varying single resonator. Furthermore, we measure the sensitivity of the proposed system to a small structural perturbation and show that the operation of the system at an EPD dramatically boosts its sensitivity performance to very small perturbations. Also, we show experimentally how this unique sensitivity induced by an EPD can be used to devise new exceptionally-sensitive sensors based on a single resonator by simply applying time modulation.

physics.app-ph↗