2014/07/30 by Tie Jun Cui, Mei Qing Qi, Cui, Tie Jun +7
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Antenna and Metasurface Technologies #Antenna Design and Analysis #FOS: Physical sciences #Metamaterials and Metasurfaces Applications #Optics (physics.optics) #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1407.8442
The correspondence E-mail: [email protected]. 19 pages, 7 figures
arxiv created 2014/07/30 · openalex publication_date 2014/07/30 · arxiv updated 2014/08/01 · openalex created_date 2019/06/27 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
As artificial structures, metamaterials are usually described by macroscopic effective medium parameters, which are named as "analog metamaterials". Here, we propose "digital metamaterials" in two steps. Firstly, we present "coding metamaterials" that are composed of only two kinds of unit cells with 0 and π phase responses, which we name as "0" and "1" elements. By coding "0" and "1" elements with controlled sequences (i.e., 1-bit coding), we can manipulate electromagnetic (EM) waves and realize different functionalities. The concept of coding metamaterial can be extended from 1-bit coding to 2-bit or more. In 2-bit coding, four kinds of unit cells with phase responses 0, π/2, π, and 3π/2 are required to mimic "00", "01", "10" and "11" elements, which have larger freedom to control EM waves. Secondly, we propose a unique metamaterial particle which has either "0" or "1" response controlled by a biased diode. Based on the particle, we present "digital metamaterials" with unit cells having either "0" or "1" state. Using the field-programmable gate array, we realize to control the digital metamaterial digitally. By programming different coding sequences, a single digital metamaterial has distinct abilities in manipulating EM waves, realizing the "programming metamaterials". The above concepts and physical phenomena are confirmed by numerical simulations and experiments through metasurfaces.