No Arabic abstract
Invariance under time translation (or stationarity) is probably one of the most important assumptions made when investigating electromagnetic phenomena. Breaking this assumption is expected to open up novel possibilities and result in exceeding conventional limitations. For that, we primarily need to contemplate the fundamental principles and concepts from a nonstationarity perspective. Here, we revisit one of those concepts: The polarizability of a small particle, assuming that its properties vary in time. We describe the coupling of the induced dipole moment with the excitation field in a nonstationary, causal way, and introduce a complex-valued function, called temporal complex polarizability, for elucidating a nonstationary Hertzian dipole under time-harmonic illumination. This approach can be extended to any subwavelength particle having electric response. In addition, we also study the polarizability of a classical electron through the equation of motion whose damping coefficient and natural frequency are changing in time. We theoretically derive the effective permittivity corresponding to time-varying media (comprising free or bound electrons) and explicitly show the differences with the conventional macroscopic Drude-Lorentz model. This paper will hopefully pave the road towards the understanding of nonstationary scattering from small particles and the homogenization of time-varying materials, metamaterials, and metasurfaces.
The possibility of making an object invisible for detectors has become a topic of considerable interest over the past decades. Most of the studies so far focused on reducing the visibility by reshaping the electromagnetic scattering in the spatial domain. In fact, by manipulating the electromagnetic scattering in the time domain, the visibility of an object can also be reduced. Importantly, unlike previous studies on phase-switched screens and time-varying metasurfaces, where the effect is narrow band due to the dispersive resonance, for microwave frequency range, we introduce a broadband switchable metasurface integrated with p-i-n diodes. The reflection phase of the metasurface can be changed by approximately {pi} over a fractional bandwidth of 76%. By modulating the metasurface quasirandomly in the time domain, the incident narrow-band signal is spread into a white-noiselike spectrum upon reflection, creating a spectral camouflage. The broadband feature of the proposed time-varying metasurface can provide practical insight for various applications, including radar stealth and ultrawide-band wireless communication.
Three earlier relativistic coupled-cluster (RCC) calculations of dipole polarizability ($alpha_d$) of the Cd atom are not in good agreement with the available experimental value of $49.65(1.65) e a_0^3$. Among these two are finite-field approaches in which the relativistic effects have been included approximately, while the other calculation uses a four component perturbed RCC method. However, another work adopting an approach similar to the latter perturbed RCC method gives a result very close to that of experiment. The major difference between these two perturbed RCC approaches lies in their implementation. To resolve this ambiguity, we have developed and employed the relativistic normal coupled-cluster (RNCC) theory to evaluate the $alpha_d$ value of Cd. The distinct features of the RNCC method are that the expression for the expectation value in this approach terminates naturally and that it satisfies the Hellmann-Feynman theorem. In addition, we determine this quantity in the finite-field approach in the framework of A four-component relativistic coupled-cluster theory. Considering the results from both these approaches, we arrive at a reliable value of $alpha_d=46.02(50) e a_0^3$. We also demonstrate that the contribution from the triples excitations in this atom is significant.
Polarizability is a key response property of physical and chemical systems, which has an impact on intermolecular interactions, spectroscopic observables, and vacuum polarization. The calculation of polarizability for quantum systems involves an infinite sum over all excited (bound and continuum) states, concealing the physical interpretation of polarization mechanisms and complicating the derivation of efficient response models. Approximate expressions for the dipole polarizability, $alpha$, rely on different scaling laws $alpha propto$ $R^3$, $R^4$, or $R^7$, for various definitions of the system radius $R$. Here, we consider a range of atom-like quantum systems of varying spatial dimensionality and having qualitatively different spectra, demonstrating that their polarizability follows a universal four-dimensional scaling law $alpha = C (4 mu q^2/hbar^2)L^4$, where $mu$ and $q$ are the (effective) particle mass and charge, $C$ is a dimensionless ratio between effective excitation energies, and the characteristic length $L$ is defined via the $mathcal{L}^2$-norm of the position operator. The applicability of this unified formula is demonstrated by accurately predicting the dipole polarizability of 36 atoms and 1641 small organic~molecules.
Huygens metasurfaces have demonstrated almost arbitrary control over the shape of a scattered beam, however, its spatial profile is typically fixed at fabrication time. Dynamic reconfiguration of this beam profile with tunable elements remains challenging, due to the need to maintain the Huygens condition across the tuning range. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate that a time-varying metadevice which performs frequency conversion can steer transmitted or reflected beams in an almost arbitrary manner, with fully dynamic control. Our time-varying Huygens metadevice is made of both electric and magnetic meta-atoms with independently controlled modulation, and the phase of this modulation is imprinted on the scattered parametric waves, controlling their shapes and directions. We develop a theory which shows how the scattering directionality, phase and conversion efficiency of sidebands can be manipulated almost arbitrarily. We demonstrate novel effects including all-angle beam steering and frequency-multiplexed functionalities at microwave frequencies around 4 GHz, using varactor diodes as tunable elements. We believe that the concept can be extended to other frequency bands, enabling metasurfaces with arbitrary phase pattern that can be dynamically tuned over the complete 2pi range.
Accumulation of energy by reactive elements is limited by the amplitude of time-harmonic external sources. In the steady-state regime, all incident power is fully reflected back to the source, and the stored energy does not increase in time, although the external source continuously supplies energy. Here, we show that this claim is not true if the reactive element is time-varying, and time-varying lossless loads of a transmission line or lossless metasurfaces can accumulate electromagnetic energy supplied by a time-harmonic source continuously in time without any theoretical limit. We analytically derive the required time dependence of the load reactance and show that it can be in principle realized as a series connection of mixers and filters. Furthermore, we prove that properly designing time-varying LC circuits one can arbitrarily engineer the time dependence of the current in the circuit fed by a given time-harmonic source. As an example, we theoretically demonstrate a circuit with a linearly increasing current through the inductor. Such LC circuits can accumulate huge energy from both the time-harmonic external source and the pump which works on varying the circuit elements in time. Finally, we discuss how this stored energy can be released in form of a time-compressed pulse.