On Frequency and Angle Stability of Anomalous Metasurface Reflectors Synthesized with Auxiliary Field and Power Conformal Methods

TL;DR

This paper compares two methods for designing anomalous metasurface reflectors, analyzing their frequency and angle stability, and finds that the power-flow conformal method offers wider angular frequency coverage at larger reflection angles.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analytical and numerical comparison of PFCM and AFS methods, highlighting their differences in impedance profiles and stability.

Findings

PFCM method has up to 23° wider angular frequency coverage at larger reflection angles.

Both methods achieve similar operational frequency bandwidths.

The study offers insights into the practical stability of metasurface designs across frequencies and angles.

Abstract

Metasurfaces (MSs) have recently become an efficient solution for controlling a spatial field distribution according to the demand of an electromagnetic device. In particular, anomalous reflectors based on impenetrable MSs can be realized by introducing a periodic spatial modulation of a local surface impedance defined on a flat or curvilinear surface. Two main methods to derive the profile of a purely reactive impedance that enable perfect anomalous reflection at an arbitrary angle are the power-flow conformal metasurface (PFCM) and auxiliary-field synthesis (AFS) methods. Both methods have been recently implemented with practical MS structures and have been successfully demonstrated in the experiments. However, the two methods assume drastically different synthesis algorithms and result in different impedance profiles. While the PFCM method is based on a direct analytical solution and does not require bounded wave excitation, the AFS method involves non-linear optimization of auxiliary bounded fields (surface waves) with rational selection of proper solutions. From a practical standpoint, the question of which method provides the most frequency-stabile solution becomes important to answer. Here we present a comprehensive analytical and numerical comparison of both methods applied to corrugated impedance surfaces in terms of the co-polarized anomalous reflection efficiency in a wide range of frequencies and corresponding scan angles. It is revealed that even though both methods can achieve imperceptible operational frequency bandwidths difference, the angular coverage of the frequency scan at larger reflection angles is up to 23$\deg$ wider for the PFCM method.