Engineering Equifrequency Contours of Metasurfaces for Self-Collimated Surface Wave Steering

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how engineering equifrequency contours of C-shape metasurfaces enables precise control of surface wave propagation, including self-collimation, spin-dependent splitting, and curved path steering, through numerical and experimental methods.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to design metasurfaces with tailored equifrequency contours for advanced surface wave control, combining numerical and experimental validation.

Findings

Achieved high self-collimation of surface waves.

Demonstrated spin-dependent wave splitting.

Enabled wave steering along curved paths by rotating metasurface elements.

Abstract

Metasurfaces provide unique capability in guiding surface waves and controlling their polarization and dispersion properties. One way to do that is by analyzing their equifrequency contours. Equifrequency contours are the 2D projection of the 3D dispersion diagram. Since they are a k-space map representation of the surface, many of the wave properties can be understood through the Equifrequency contours. In this paper, we investigate numerically and experimentally the engineering of equifrequency contours using C-shape metasurface design. We show the ability to provide high self-collimation as well as spin-dependent wave splitting for the same metasurface by tuning the frequency of operation. We also show the ability to steer the wave along a defined curved path by rotating the C-shape which results in rotating its equifrequency contours. This work demonstrates how engineering equifrequency contours can be used as a powerful tool for controlling the surface wave propagation properties.