Dynamic Beam Steering and Focusing Graphene Metasurface Mirror Based on Fermi Energy Control

Micromachines (Basel). 2023 Mar 23;14(4):715. doi: 10.3390/mi14040715.

Abstract

Beam steering technology is crucial for radio frequency and infrared telecommunication signal processing. Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are typically used for beam steering in infrared optics-based fields but have slow operational speeds. An alternative solution is to use tunable metasurfaces. Since graphene has gate-tunable optical properties, it is widely used in electrically tunable optical devices due to ultrathin physical thickness. We propose a tunable metasurface structure using graphene in a metal gap structure that can exhibit a fast-operating speed through bias control. The proposed structure can change beam steering and can focus immediately by controlling the Fermi energy distribution on the metasurface, thus overcoming the limitations of MEMS. The operation is numerically demonstrated through finite element method simulations.

Keywords: beam steering; focus control; graphene; metamaterial mirror; metasurface mirror.

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant provided by the Korean Government (Grant NRF-2021R1F1A104711911), the Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning (KETEP), and the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Energy (MOTIE) of the Republic of Korea (20193020010440).