• DOI:10.1038/s42005-021-00713-1
• Corpus ID: 227209556

Designing the collective non-local responses of metasurfaces

@article{Capers2020DesigningTC,
  title={Designing the collective non-local responses of metasurfaces},
  author={James R. Capers and Stephen J. Boyes and Alastair P. Hibbins and Simon A. R. Horsley},
  journal={Communications Physics},
  year={2020},
  volume={4},
  pages={1-10},
  url={https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:227209556}
}

• J. Capers, S. Boyes, +1 author S. Horsley
• Published in Communications Physics 26 November 2020
• Physics, Materials Science, Engineering

The ability to design the electromagnetic properties of materials to achieve any given wave scattering effect is key to many technologies, from communications to cloaking and biological imaging. Currently, common design methods either neglect degrees of freedom or are difficult to interpret. Here, we derive a simple and efficient method for designing wave–shaping materials composed of dipole scatterers, taking into account multiple scattering effects and both magnetic and electric… 

The ability to design the electromagnetic properties of materials to achieve any given wave scattering effect is key to many technologies, from communications to cloaking and biological imaging. Currently, common design methods either neglect degrees of freedom or are difficult to interpret. Here, we derive a simple and efficient method for designing wave–shaping materials composed of dipole scatterers, taking into account multiple scattering effects and both magnetic and electric polarizabilities. As an application of our theory, we design aperiodic metasurfaces that re-structure the radiation from a dipole emitter: (i) modifying of the near-field to provide a 4-fold enhancement in power emission; (ii) re-shaping the far-field radiation pattern to exhibit chosen directivity; and (iii) the design of a discrete Luneburg–like lens. Additionally, we develop a clear physical interpretation of the optimised structure, by extracting eigen-polarizabilities of the system, finding that a large eigen-polarizability corresponds to a large collective response of the scatterers. Mapping the response required to obtain the desired output field from a metamaterial for a given input remains challenging due to the complexity of scattering processes. Here, a semi-analytical model for the design of aperiodic metasurfaces is presented alongside numerical examples.