Designing Multi-functional Metamaterials

TL;DR

This paper introduces a semi-analytic method based on the discrete dipole approximation for designing multi-functional metamaterials capable of performing different electromagnetic operations depending on the input conditions.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel semi-analytic approach to design multi-functional metamaterials, addressing the challenge of creating structures with multiple electromagnetic functionalities.

Findings

Successfully designed optical device that directs light based on polarization.

Created microwave device that sorts plane waves by incidence angle.

Demonstrated the generality of the method across different wavelengths.

Abstract

The ability to design passive structures that perform different operations on different electromagnetic fields is key to many technologies, from beam-steering to optical computing. While many techniques have been developed to optimise structure to achieve specific functionality through inverse design, designing multi-function materials remains challenging. We present a semi-analytic method, based on the discrete dipole approximation, to design multi-functional metamaterials. To demonstrate the generality of our method, we design a device that operates at optical wavelengths and beams light into different directions depending on the source polarisation and a device that works at microwave wavelengths and sorts plane waves by their angle of incidence.