Amplification and Manipulation of Nonlinear Electromagnetic Waves and Enhanced Nonreciprocity using Transmissive Space-Time-Coding Metasurface

A novel amplifier-based transmissive space-time-coding metasurface is presented to realize strongly nonlinear controls of electromagnetic (EM) waves in both space and frequency domains, which can manipulate the propagation directions and adjust enhancements of nonlinear harmonic waves and break the Lorenz reciprocity due to the nonreciprocity of unilateral power amplifiers. By cascading the power amplifier between patches placed on two sides of the metasurface, the metasurface can transmit the spatial EM waves in the forward direction while blocking it in the backward direction. Two status of power amplifier biased at the standard working voltage and zero voltage are represented as codes "1" and "0," respectively. By periodically setting adequate code sequences and proportions in the temporal dimension, according to the space-time coding strategy, the amplitudes and phases of the harmonic transmission coefficients can be adjusted in a programmable way. A metasurface prototype is fabricated and measured in the microwave frequency to validate the concept and feasibility. The experimental results show good agreement with the theoretical predictions and numerical simulations. The proposed metasurface can achieve controllable harmonic power enhancements for flexibly configuring the power intensities in space, which enlarge and manipulate the quality of transmitting signals.