Macroscopic Modeling of Anomalously Reflecting Metasurfaces: Angular Response and Far-Field Scattering

TL;DR

This paper develops a macroscopic model to understand how reconfigurable metasurfaces reflect signals from various angles, aiding the design of smart radio environments for future mobile communications.

Contribution

It introduces a surface-impedance based model for the angular response of anomalous reflectors, including finite-size effects, to improve propagation channel modeling.

Findings

Reflection coefficients depend on illumination angle.

Finite-size metasurfaces influence scattering behavior.

Models can be integrated into ray-tracing for realistic scenarios.

Abstract

In view of extremely challenging requirements on design and optimization of future mobile communication systems, researchers are considering possibilities of creation intelligent radio environments by using reconfigurable and smart metasurfaces integrated into walls, ceilings, or facades. In this novel communication paradigm, tunable metasurfaces redirect incident waves into the desired directions. In order to design and characterize such smart radio environments in any realistic scenario, it is necessary to know how these metasurfaces behave when illuminated from other directions and how scattering from finite-sized anomalous reflectors can be estimated. We study the angular response of anomalous reflectors for arbitrary illumination angles. Using the surface-impedance model, we explain the dependence of the reflection coefficients of phase-gradient metasurfaces on the illumination angle and present numerical examples for typical structures. We also consider scattering from finite-size metasurfaces and define a route toward including the full-angle response of anomalous reflections into the ray-tracing models of the propagation channel. The developed models apply to other diffraction gratings of finite size.