Coherently Assisted Wireless Power Transfer Through Poorly Transparent Barriers

TL;DR

This paper introduces a coherent scattering control method that enables near-perfect wireless power transfer through highly reflective barriers without structural modifications, by using phase-locked auxiliary waves based on measured scattering parameters.

Contribution

The authors develop a barrier-agnostic technique using coherent assistance to achieve reflectionless wireless power transfer through opaque barriers, validated with analytical and numerical models.

Findings

Achieves near-unity transmission through opaque barriers.

Enhances power transfer efficiency significantly.

Effective even in lossy, dissipative barriers.

Abstract

Poorly transparent barriers (e.g., reinforced walls, shielding panels, metallic or high-contrast dielectrics) strongly reflect incident radiation, limiting wireless power transfer (WPT) unless the barrier is structurally modified to support a narrowband transparency window. Here we introduce a barrier-agnostic alternative based on coherent scattering control: a phase-locked auxiliary wave is launched from the receiver side with an amplitude and phase chosen from the measured complex scattering parameters of the barrier. In a two-port (single-channel-per-side) description, we derive closed-form conditions for (i) canceling back-reflection toward the transmitter and (ii) maximizing the net extracted power at the receiver side. In the lossless limit these conditions imply unit transmitter-to-receiver efficiency (all transmitter power is routed to the receiver side) even when the barrier is nearly opaque under one-sided illumination. We validate the concept using (1) an analytically solvable high-index Fabry--P\'erot slab and (2) a numerically simulated perforated PEC metasurface exhibiting vanishing one-sided transmission; in both cases, coherent assistance yields near-unity transmission and large enhancement factors. We further analyze dissipative barriers using a receiver-side energy-balance metric, showing that substantial net delivery can persist well into the lossy regime. The approach is closely related to coherent perfect absorption and time-reversal ideas in wave physics, but targets \emph{reflectionless delivery through barriers} without modifying the obstacle itself.