Transformation optics based on metasurfaces

TL;DR

This paper discusses the development and advantages of metasurfaces, a two-dimensional metamaterial that efficiently manipulates electromagnetic waves with reduced fabrication complexity and propagation loss, enabling novel applications like gravity analogies.

Contribution

The paper introduces the concept of metasurfaces for electromagnetic wave control and demonstrates their potential for efficient wavefront manipulation with simplified fabrication.

Findings

Metasurfaces can control wavefronts with subwavelength thickness.

They reduce fabrication complexity compared to 3D metamaterials.

Experimental work shows applications in gravity analogies.

Abstract

Recently, new artificial material has been proposed to control an electromagnetic wave-metasurface, a two-dimensional metamaterial. Compared with a three-dimensional bulky metamaterial, this artificial plane material with sub-wavelength thickness greatly reduces fabrication time and mitigates fabrication complexity. Additionally, traditional metamaterials usually control the wavefront of an electromagnetic wave by accumulating the phase through propagating at a distance far larger than the wavelength. However, a metasurface can efficiently manipulate the wavefront of an incident electromagnetic wave through just the subwavelength propagation distance. Therefore, this can largely alleviate the propagation loss. Given the fact that a metasurface has high manipulation efficiency for an electromagnetic wave in the near filed regime, our group investigated experimental work on the analogy of gravity using a metasurface.