High performance reflective microwave split-square-ring metasurface vortex beam generator

• Published in: Optics communications Vol. 507; p. 127631
• Main Authors: Cheng, Kaixiang, Hu, Zheng-Da, Kong, Xianglin, Shen, Xiaopeng, Wang, Jicheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 15.03.2022
• Subjects: Metasurfaces; Microwave communication; Orbital angular momentum; Microwave communication; Metasurfaces; Orbital angular momentum
• ISSN: 0030-4018; 1873-0310
• DOI: 10.1016/j.optcom.2021.127631

The creation of vortex beams becomes increasingly important in microwave region for their potential applications in high-capacity multiplexed wireless communication systems. In this paper, we propose a kind of split-square-ring metasurface for generating microwave vortex beams at 16 GHz. We first analyze the S-parameter of the meta-atoms and then optimize and pick up 8 units which can cover 2π phase shift for the whole array design. Four metasurfaces carrying topological charges from 1 to 4 are, respectively, designed, and full-wave simulation is utilized for evaluating the near-field performance. The orbital angular momentum purity for each topological charge is calculated. Meanwhile, the far-field property has also been simulated and measured, and the simulation results agree well with those in experiments. Our metasurface device provides a flexible way for generating high-quality vortex beams in the microwave region. •A novel split-square-ring metasurface is proposed to achieve high performance microwave vortex beams at microwave domain.•We analyze the metasurface unit cell, then test the performance of the metasurface both numerically and experimentally.•This metasurface vortex beam device has potential applications in wireless communication in the future.