Ultra-broadband transmissive gradient metasurface based on the topologically coding optimization method

Opt Express. 2021 Jul 5;29(14):22136-22145. doi: 10.1364/OE.426187.

Abstract

Metasurfaces have provided a novel way on modulating the wavefront of electromagnetic (EM) waves, where phase modulating is an important method to control EM waves. Normally, phase can be continuously modulated by changing the size of a meta-atom. For a broadband device, it is essential that phase changes linearly varying against frequency within a wide frequency interval, which is quite difficult to design, especially for the transmissive scheme. In this paper, we propose a 0-1 coding method by using genetic algorithm (GA) to realize broadband linear transmission phase and high transmission amplitude against frequency. To verify the method, a beam bending metasurface is designed based on array of six meta-atoms with step gap of 60°. Simulation and experimental results show that the metasurface deflector achieves perfect beam refraction from 8 to 12 GHz, which is consistent with theoretical calculations. Moreover, the working efficiency is kept at about 75%, with the variation of the frequency, which demonstrates the good stability of the metasurface. This method offers a new insight into the designing of broadband devices.