Polarizable Particles and their Two-Dimensional Arrays: Advances in Small Antenna and Metasurface Technologies.

Abstract

Metamaterials are subwavelength-structured materials designed to exhibit tailored electromagnetic properties. Metamaterials have allowed extreme control over constituent material parameters (i.e. permittivity, permeability, and chirality), which has enabled a myriad of counterintuitive physical phenomena. However, metamaterials typically suffer from high losses, difficulties in fabrication, and are bulky. This has led to the development of metasurfaces, which are the two dimensional equivalent of metamaterials. Metasurfaces can impart abrupt discontinuities on electromagnetic wavefronts, allowing electromagnetic fields to be tailored across subwavelength length scales.

The building blocks of metasurfaces are subwavelength textured, polarizable particles. Near resonance, these particles support strong currents, which makes them excellent small antennas. In this thesis, a circuit model is developed that can model an arbitrary small antenna based on its frequency dependent polarizability. In addition, a direct transfer patterning process is developed that allows metallic patterns to be printed onto arbitrarily contoured substrates. This work will find immediate applications in a number of emerging technologies resulting from the rapid expansion of the mobile electronics industry.

Next, extreme control of the polarization and profile of a wavefront is demonstrated using two-dimensional arrays of polarizable particles (i.e. metasurfaces). A new class of metasurfaces, referred to as metamaterial Huygens' surfaces, is shown to have a significantly improved efficiency over the state of the art. Metamaterial Huygens' surfaces utilize polarizable particles that exhibit both an electric and magnetic response, which allows for reflectionless wavefront control. Next, it is shown that simply cascading patterned metallic sheets can also provide high transmission and complete phase control. To demonstrate the design methodology, several different metasurfaces are developed that deflect incident Gaussian beams to a stipulated angle or convert an incident Gaussian beam into a vector Bessel beam. Further, utilizing sheets with anisotropic patterns provides additional magneto-electric coupling, which enables complete control of a wavefront (i.e. amplitude, phase, and polarization control). The experimental verification at frequencies ranging from microwaves to optics highlights the versatility of this work.