No Arabic abstract
We propose an effective route to fully control the phase of plane waves reflected from electrically (optically) thin sheets. This becomes possible using engineered artificial full-reflection layers (metamirrors) as arrays of electrically small resonant bi-anisotropic particles. In this scenario, fully reflecting mirrors do not contain any continuous ground plane, but only arrays of small particles. Bi-anisotropic omega coupling is required to get asymmetric response in reflection phase for plane waves incident from the opposite sides of the composite mirror. It is shown that with this concept one can independently tailor the phase of electromagnetic waves reflected from both sides of the mirror array.
We introduce the concept of non-uniform metamirrors (full-reflection metasurfaces) providing full control of reflected wave fronts independently from the two sides of the mirror. Metamirror is a single planar array of electrically small bianisotropic inclusions. The electric and magnetic responses of the inclusions enable creating controlled gradient of phase discontinuities over the surface. Furthermore, presence of electromagnetic coupling in the inclusions allows independent control of reflection phase from the opposite sides of the mirror. Based on the proposed concept, we design and simulate metamirrors for highly efficient light bending and near-diffraction-limit focusing with a sub-wavelength focal distance.
Conventional mirrors obey Snells reflection law: a plane wave is reflected as a plane wave, at the same angle. To engineer spatial distributions of fields reflected from a mirror, one can either shape the reflector (for example, creating a parabolic reflector) or position some phase-correcting elements on top of a mirror surface (for example, designing a reflectarray antenna). Here we show, both theoretically and experimentally, that full-power reflection with general control over reflected wave phase is possible with a single-layer array of deeply sub-wavelength inclusions. These proposed artificial surfaces, metamirrors, provide various functions of shaped or nonuniform reflectors without utilizing any mirror. This can be achieved only if the forward and backward scattering of the inclusions in the array can be engineered independently, and we prove that it is possible using electrically and magnetically polarizable inclusions. The proposed sub-wavelength inclusions possess desired reflecting properties at the operational frequency band, while at other frequencies the array is practically transparent. The metamirror concept leads to a variety of applications over the entire electromagnetic spectrum, such as optically transparent focusing antennas for satellites, multi-frequency reflector antennas for radio astronomy, low-profile conformal antennas for telecommunications, and nano-reflectarray antennas for integrated optics.
We present a theoretical analysis of the effects of short range surface plasmon polariton excitation on sub-wavelength bridges in metal gratings. We show that localized resonances in thin metal bridges placed within the slit of a free-standing silver grating dramatically modify transmission spectra and boost absorption regardless of the periodicity of the grating. Additionally, the interference of multiple localized resonances makes it possible to tailor the absorption properties of ultrathin gratings, regardless of the apertures geometrical size. This tunable, narrow-band, enhanced-absorption mechanism triggered by resonant, short range surface plasmon polaritons may also enhance nonlinear optical processes like harmonic generation, in view of the large third-order susceptibility of metals.
Many advances in reflective metasurfaces have been made during the last few years, implementing efficient manipulations of wavefronts, especially for plane waves. Despite numerous solutions that have been developed throughout the years, a practical method to obtain subwavelength focusing without the generation of additional undesired scattering is a challenge to this day. In this paper, we introduce and discuss lossless reflectors for focusing incident waves into a point. The solution is based on the so-called power flow-conformal surfaces that allow theoretically arbitrary shaping of reflected waves. The metamirror shape is adapted to the power flow of the sum of the incident and reflected waves, allowing a local description of the reflector surface based on the surface impedance. In particular, we present a study of two scenarios. First, we study the scenario when the field is emitted by a point source and focused at an image point (in the considered example, with the {lambda}/20 resolution). Second, we analyze a metasurface capable to focus the power of an illuminating plane wave. This work provides a feasible strategy for various applications, including detecting biological signals near the skin, sensitive power focusing for cancer therapy, and point-to-point power transfer.
Reducing a set of diverse bulk-optic-based optical components to a single ultrathin and compact element that enables the same complex functionality has become an emerging research area, propelling further integration and miniaturization in photonics. In this work, we establish a versatile metasurface platform based on gap-surface plasmon meta-atoms enabling efficient linear-polarization conversion along with the complete phase control over reflected fields. Capitalizing on the meta-atom design, multifunctional metamirrors involving linear-polarization conversion and focusing are experimentally demonstrated to generate various kinds of focused beams with distinct phase distributions and wavefronts, reproducing thereby the combined functionalities of conventional half-wave plates, lenses, and even spatial light modulators. The proof-of-concept fabricated metamirrors exhibit excellent capability of linear-polarization conversion and focusing within the wavelength range from 800 to 950 nm under linearly-polarized excitation. The multifunctional metamirrors design developed in this study opens new avenues in the advanced research and applications targeting photonics integration of diversified functionalities.