arXiv subjects

Ariel Epstein

Publications and source records attributed to Ariel Epstein.

34 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Dual-Polarized All-Metallic Metagratings for Perfect Anomalous Reflection

We theoretically formulate and experimentally demonstrate the design of metagratings (MGs) composed of periodic rectangular grooves in a metallic medium, intended for perfect anomalous reflection. Using mode matching, a semianalytical scheme for analysis and synthesis of such MGs, containing multiple, arbitrarily arranged, grooves per period, is derived. Following the typical MG design approach, we use this formalism to identify the relevant Floquet-Bloch (FB) modes and conveniently formulate constraints for suppression of spurious scattering, directly tying the structure's geometrical degrees of freedom (DOFs) to the desired functionality. Solving this set of constraints, in turn, yields a detailed fabrication-ready MG design, without any full-wave optimization. Besides providing means to realize highly-efficient beam deflection with all-metallic formations, we show that the rectangular (two-dimensional) groove configuration enables \emph{simultaneous} manipulation of both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarized fields, unavailable to date with common, printed-circuit-board-based, microwave MGs. In addition, we highlight a physical limitation on the TE-polarization performance, preventing the ability to achieve perfect anomalous reflection in any desired angle. These capabilities are verified using three MG prototypes, produced with standard computer numerical control (CNC) machines, demonstrating both single- and dual-polarized control of multiple diffraction modes. These results enable the use of MGs for a broader range of applications, where dual-polarized control is required, or all-metallic devices are preferable (e.g., spaceborne systems or at high operating frequencies).

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2020

Electrically Thick Fabry-Pérot Omega Bianisotropic Metasurfaces as Virtual Anti-Reflective Coatings and Non-Local Field Transformers

Omega bianisotropic metasurfaces (OBMS) provide wave-control capabilities not previously available with Huygens' metasurfaces (HMS). These enhanced capabilities derive from the additional degree of freedom provided by OBMS, and are based on analyses of zero-thickness surfaces with abstract surface impedance properties. However, the design of practical metasurfaces has proven tedious. Herein, we propose a novel, easily designed structure to realize OBMSs. Extending our previous work, we show that an asymmetrical cascade of two judiciously engineered Fabry-Perot (FP) etalons could form an OBMS meta-atom to provide desired wave control capabilities. Implementing this FP-OBMS for anomalous refraction, we show that bianisotropy effectively produces a virtual anti-reflective coating over a HMS, leading to the OBMS efficiency enhancement. This intriguing observation, backed by an approximate closed-form solution, provides an original physical interpretation of the mechanism underlying perfect anomalous refraction, and is used to explain for the first time differences in the angular response of OBMS in comparison to HMS. Implementing the FP-OBMS for the more intricate functionality of beam-splitting, we show that the FP-OBMS are capable of non-local excitation of surface waves required to this end, despite being electrically thick. These results, verified via full-wave computations, demonstrate the ability of the proposed configuration to meticulously reproduce the scattering properties of ideal (abstract) zero-thickness OBMS, thereby paving the path to practical realization of wave transmission with exotic functionalities, some of which have never before been associated with a physical structure.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2019

Fabry-Pérot Huygens' Metasurfaces: On Homogenization of Electrically Thick Composites

Realization of the anomalous refraction effects predicted by Huygens' metasurfaces (HMS) have required tedious and time-consuming trial-and-error numerical full-wave computations. It is shown herein that these requirements can be alleviated for transverse magnetic (TM) propagation by a periodic dielectric-based HMS consisting of an electrically thick array of cascaded Fabry-Pérot etalons. This "Fabry-Pérot HMS" (FP-HMS) is easily designed to mimic the local scattering coefficients of a standard zero-thickness HMS (ZT-HMS) which, according to homogenization theory, should result in the desired anomalous refraction. To probe the characteristics of this practical FP-HMS, a method based on Floquet-Bloch (FB) analysis is derived for predicting the fields scattered from it for arbitrary angles of incidence. This method produces simple closed-form solutions for the FB wave amplitudes and the resulting fields are shown to agree well with full-wave simulations. These predictions and full-wave simulations verify the applicability of homogenization and scattering properties of zero-thickness HMS's to thick structures. They also verify the proposed semi-analytical microscopic design procedure for such structures, offering an effective alternative path to implementation of theoretically envisioned intricate field manipulating devices.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2019

Arbitrary Diffraction Engineering with Multilayered Multielement Metagratings

We theoretically formulate and experimentally demonstrate an analytical formalism for the design of printed circuit board (PCB) metagratings (MGs) exercising individual control over the amplitude and phase of numerous diffracted modes, in both reflection and transmission. Lately, these periodic arrangements of subwavelength polarizable particles (meta-atoms) were shown to deflect an incoming plane wave to prescribed angles with very high efficiencies, despite their sparsity with respect to conventional metasurfaces. Nonetheless, most reported MGs were designed based on full-wave optimization of the meta-atoms, with the scarce analytical schemes leading directly to realizable devices were restricted to single-layer reflecting structures, controlling only the partition of power. In this paper, we present an analytical model for plane-wave interaction with a general multilayered multielement MG, composed of an arbitrary number of meta-atoms distributed across an arbitrary number of layers in a given stratified media configuration. For a desired (forward and backward) diffraction pattern, we formulate suitable constraints, identify the required number of degrees of freedom, and correspondingly set them to yield a detailed MG configuration implementing the prescribed functionality; no full-wave optimization is involved. To verify and demonstrate the versatility of this systematic approach, fabrication-ready multilayer PCB MGs for perfect anomalous refraction and non-local focusing are synthesized, fabricated, and experimentally characterized, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, indicating very good correspondence with theoretical predictions. This appealing semianalytical methodology is expected to accelerate the development of MGs and extend the relevant range of applications, yielding practical MG designs on demand for arbitrary beam manipulation.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2019

Rigorous Analytical Model for Metasurface Microscopic Design with Interlayer Coupling

We present a semianalytical method for designing meta-atoms in multilayered metasurfaces (MSs), relying on a rigorous model developed for multielement metagratings. Notably, this model properly accounts for near-field coupling effects, allowing reliable design even for extremely small interlayer spacings, verified via commercial solvers. This technique forms an appealing alternative to the common full-wave optimization employed for MS microscopic design to date.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2018

Theory, design, and experimental verification of a reflectionless bianisotropic Huygens' metasurface for wide-angle refraction

Huygens' metasurfaces are electrically thin devices which allow arbitrary field transformations. Beam refraction is among the first demonstrations of realized metasurfaces. As previously shown for extreme-angle refraction, control over only the electric impedance and magnetic admittance of the Huygens' metasurface proved insufficient to produce the desired reflectionless field transformation. To maintain zero reflections for wide refraction angles, magnetoelectric coupling between the electric and magnetic response of the metasurface, leading to bianisotropy, can be introduced. In this paper, we report the theory, design, and experimental characterization of a reflectionless bianisotropic metasurface for extreme-angle refraction of a normally incident plane wave towards 71.8$^\circ$ at 20 GHz. The theory and design of three-layer asymmetric bianisotropic unit cells are discussed. The realized printed circuit board structure was tested via full-wave simulations as well as experimental characterization. To experimentally verify the prototype, two setups were used. A quasi-optical experiment was conducted to assess the specular reflections of the metasurface, while a far-field antenna measurement characterized its refraction nature. The measurements verify that the fabricated metasurface has negligible reflections and the majority of the scattered power is refracted to the desired Floquet mode. This provides an experimental demonstration of a reflectionless wide-angle refracting metasurface using a bianisotropic Huygens' metasurface at microwave frequencies.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2018

A Leaky-Wave Antenna With Controlled Radiation Using a Bianisotropic Huygens' Metasurface

In this paper, a novel concept of a leaky-wave antenna is proposed, based on the use of Huygens' metasurfaces. It consists of a parallel-plate waveguide in which the top plate is replaced by a bianisotropic metasurface of the Omega type. It is shown that there is an exact solution to transform the guided mode into a leaky-mode with arbitrary control of the constant leakage factor and the pointing direction. Although the solution turns out to be periodic, only one Floquet mode is excited and radiates, even for electrically long periods. Thanks to the intrinsic spurious Floquet mode suppression, broadside radiation can be achieved without any degradation. Simulations with idealized reactance sheets verify the concept. Moreover, physical structures compatible with PCB fabrication have been proposed and designed, considering aspects such as the effect of losses. Finally, experimental results of two prototypes are presented and discussed.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2018

Experimental demonstration and in-depth investigation of analytically designed anomalous reflection metagratings

We present the design, fabrication and experimental investigation of a printed circuit board (PCB) metagrating (MG) for perfect anomalous reflection. The design follows our previously developed analytical formalism, resulting in a single-element MG capable of unitary coupling of the incident wave to the specified (first order) Floquet-Bloch (FB) mode while suppressing the specular reflection. We characterize the MG performance experimentally using a bistatic scattering pattern measurement, relying on an original beam-power integration approach for accurate evaluation of the coupling to the various modes across a wide frequency range. The results show that highly-efficient wide-angle anomalous reflection is achieved, as predicted by the theory, with a relatively broadband response. In addition, the MG is found to perform well when illuminated from different angles, acting as a multichannel reflector, and to scatter efficiently also to higher-order FB modes at other frequencies, exhibiting multifunctional capabilities. Importantly, the merits of the introduced beam-integration approach, namely, its improved resilience to measurement inaccuracies or noise effects, and the implicit accommodation of different effective aperture sizes, are emphasized, highly relevant in view of the numerous recent experimental reports on anomalous reflection metasurfaces. Finally, we discuss the source for losses associated with the MG; interestingly, we show that these correlate well with edge diffraction effects, rather than (commonly assumed) power dissipation. These experimental results verify our theoretical synthesis scheme, showing that highly-efficient anomalous reflection is achievable with a realistic fabricated MG, demonstrating the practical applicability and potential mutifunctionality of analytically designed MGs for future wavefront manipulating devices.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2018

Perfect Anomalous Refraction with Metagratings

We present a methodology for designing metagratings for perfect anomalous refraction, based on multilayered loaded wire arrays. In recent work, it has been shown that such structures can implement perfect anomalous deflection and beam splitting in \emph{reflect-mode}, using only a handful of subwavelength meta-atoms per (wavelength-scale) macro-period. Extending previous formulations to enable manipulation of \emph{transmitted} fields as well, we derive analytical relations between the scattered fields, currents induced on the wires, and the individual load impedances, and enforce conditions that guarantee elimination of spurious scattering while retaining a passive and lossless structure. Utilizing our recent results, we demonstrate how the multilayered metagratings can be realized using realistic printed-capacitor loads, whose geometry can be analytically resolved. Thus, this design scheme, which can be fully implemented in MATLAB, prescribes simple physical structures, achieving optimal anomalous refraction efficiency without requiring even a single full-wave simulation. This paves the path for harnessing this novel concept for applications requiring control on transmitted diffraction modes (e.g., lenses), taking advantage of an efficient and rigorous design scheme, and simplified structure.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2018

Analytical Design of Printed-Circuit-Board (PCB) Metagratings for Perfect Anomalous Reflection

We present an analytical scheme for the design of realistic metagratings for wide-angle engineered reflection. These recently proposed planar structures can reflect an incident plane wave into a prescribed (generally non-specular) angle with very high efficiencies, using only a single meta-atom per period. Such devices offer a means to overcome the implementation difficulties associated with standard metasurfaces (consisting of closely-packed subwavelength meta-atoms) and the relatively low efficiencies of gradient metasurfaces. In contrast to previous work, in which accurate systematic design was limited to metagratings unrealistically suspended in free space, we derive herein a closed-form formalism allowing realization of printed-circuit-board (PCB) metagrating perfect reflectors, comprised of loaded conducting strips defined on standard metal-backed dielectric substrate. The derivation yields a detailed procedure for the determination of the substrate thickness and conductor geometry required to achieve unitary coupling efficiencies, without requiring even a single full-wave simulation. Our methodology, verified via commercial solvers, ultimately allows one to proceed from a theoretical design to synthesis of a full physical structure, avoiding the time-consuming numerical optimizations typically involved in standard metasurface design.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2017

Unveiling the properties of metagratings via a detailed analytical model for synthesis and analysis

We present detailed analytical modelling and in-depth investigation of wide-angle reflect-mode metagrating beam splitters. These recently introduced ultrathin devices are capable of implementing intricate diffraction engineering functionalities with only a single meta-atom per macro-period, making them considerably simpler to synthesize than conventional metasurfaces. We extend upon recent work and focus on electrically-polarizable metagratings, comprised of loaded conducting wires in front of a perfect elecric conductor, excited by transverse-electric polarized fields, which are more practical for planar fabrication. The derivation further relates the metagrating performance parameters to the individual meta-atom load, facilitating an efficient semianalytical synthesis scheme to determine the required conductor geometry for achieving optimal beam splitting. Subsequently, we utilize the model to analyze the effects of realistic conductor losses, reactance deviations, and frequency shifts on the device performance, and reveal that metagratings feature preferable working points, in which the sensitivity to these non-idealities is rather low. The analytical relations shed light on the physical origin of this phenomenon, associating it with fundamental interference processes taking place in the device. These results, verified via full-wave simulations of realistic physical structures, yield a set of efficient engineering tools, as well as profound physical intuition, for devising future metagrating devices, with immense potential for microwave, terahertz, and optical beam-manipulation applications.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2017

Experimental Verification of Reflectionless Wide-Angle Refraction via a Bianisotropic Huygens' Metasurface

We report the design, fabrication, and characterization of bianisotropic Huygens' metasurfaces (BHMSs) for refraction of normally incident beams towards 71.8 degrees. As previously shown, all three BHMS degrees of freedom, namely, electric polarizability, magnetic polarizability and omega-type magnetoelectric coupling, are required to ensure no reflections occur for such wide-angle impedance mismatch. The unit cells are composed of three metallic layers, yielding a printed-circuit-board (PCB) structure. The fabricated BHMS is characterized in a quasi-optical setup, used to accurately assess specular reflections. Subsequently, the horn-illuminated BHMS' radiation pattern is measured in a far-field chamber, to evaluate the device's refraction characteristics. The measured results verify that the BHMS has negligible reflections, and the majority of the scattered power is coupled to the desirable Floquet-Bloch mode. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first experimental demonstration of such a reflectionless wide-angle refracting metasurface.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Synthesis of passive lossless metasurfaces using auxiliary fields for reflectionless beam splitting and perfect reflection

We introduce a paradigm for accurate design of metasurfaces for intricate beam manipulation, implementing functionalities previously considered impossible to achieve with passive lossless elements. The key concept involves self-generation of auxiliary evanescent fields which facilitate the required local power conservation, without interfering with the device performance in the far field. We demonstrate our scheme by presenting exact reactive solutions to the challenging problems of reflectionless beam splitting and perfect reflection, verified via full wave simulations.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2016

Arbitrary power-conserving field transformations with passive lossless omega-type bianisotropic metasurfaces

We present a general theory for designing realistic omega-type bianisotropic metasurfaces (O-BMSs), unlocking their full potential for molding electromagnetic fields. These metasurfaces, characterized by electric surface impedance, magnetic surface admittance, and magnetoelectric coupling coefficient, were previously considered for wavefront manipulation. However, previous reports mainly considered plane-wave excitations, and implementations included cumbersome metallic features. In this work, we prove that any field transformation which locally conserves real power can be implemented via passive and lossless meta-atoms characterized by closed-form expressions; this allows rigorous incorporation of arbitrary source and scattering configurations. Subsequently, we show that O-BMS meta-atoms can be implemented using an asymmetric stack of three impedance sheets, an appealing structure for printed circuit board fabrication. Our formulation reveals that, as opposed to Huygens' metasurfaces (HMSs), which exhibit negligible magnetoelectric coupling, O-BMSs are not limited to controlling the phase of transmitted fields, but can rather achieve high level of control over the amplitude and phase of reflected fields. This is demonstrated by designing O-BMSs for reflectionless wide-angle refraction, independent surface-wave guiding, and a highly-directive low-profile antenna, verified with full-wave simulations. This straightforward methodology facilitates development of O-BMS-based devices for controlling the near and far fields of arbitrary sources in complex scattering configurations.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2015

Cavity-excited Huygens' metasurface antennas: near-unity aperture efficiency from arbitrarily-large apertures

One of the long-standing problems in antenna engineering is the realization of highly-directive beams using low-profile devices. In this paper we provide a solution to this problem by means of Huygens' metasurfaces (HMSs), based on the equivalence principle. This principle states that a given excitation can be transformed to a desirable aperture field by inducing suitable electric and magnetic surface currents. Building on this concept, we propose and demonstrate cavity-excited HMS antennas, where the single-source cavity excitation is designed to optimize aperture illumination, while the HMS facilitates the current distribution that ensures phase purity of aperture fields. The HMS breaks the coupling between the excitation and radiation spectrum typical to standard partially-reflecting surfaces, allowing tailoring of the aperture properties to produce a desirable radiation pattern. As shown, a single semianalytical formalism can be followed to achieve control of a variety of radiation features, such as the direction of the main beam or the side lobe level, by proper modification of the HMS and the source position. Relying on a cavity excitation, this can be achieved without incurring edge-taper losses and without any degradation of the aperture illumination for arbitrarily-large apertures. With the recent demonstrations of Huygens' metasurfaces at microwave, terahertz, and optical frequencies, the proposed low-profile design may find its use in a myriad of applications across the electromagnetic spectrum, from highly-directive antennas to highly-efficient quantum-dot emitters, reaching near-unity aperture efficiencies.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2014

Passive Lossless Huygens Metasurfaces for Conversion of Arbitrary Source Field to Directive Radiation

We present a semi-analytical formulation of the interaction between a given source field and a scalar Huygens metasurface (HMS), a recently introduced promising concept for wavefront manipulation based on a sheet of orthogonal electric and magnetic dipoles. Utilizing the equivalent surface impedance representation of these metasurfaces, we establish that an arbitrary source field can be converted into directive radiation via a passive lossless HMS if two physical conditions are met: local power conservation and local impedance equalization. Expressing the fields via their plane-wave spectrum and harnessing the slowly-varying envelope approximation we obtain semi-analytical formulae for the scattered fields, and prescribe the surface reactance required for the metasurface implementation. The resultant design procedure indicates that the local impedance equalization induces a Fresnel-like reflection, while local power conservation forms a radiating virtual aperture which follows the total excitation field magnitude. The semi-analytical predictions are verified by finite-element simulations of HMSs designed for different source configurations. Besides serving as a flexible design procedure for HMS radiators, the proposed formulation also provides a robust mechanism to incorporate a variety of source configurations into general HMS models, as well as physical insight on the conditions enabling purely reactive implementation of this novel type of metasurfaces.

physics.optics↗