Negative Reflecting Meta-Mirrors

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 5729 - 10
• Main Authors: Yang, Rui, Li, Dong, Gao, Dongxing, Zhang, Aofang, Hu, Bowei, Yang, Pei, Lei, Zhenya, Li, Jiacheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 18.07.2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/166/987; 639/624/399/1015; Behavior; Electromagnetic fields; Electromagnetism; Humanities and Social Sciences; Mirrors; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-06184-1

Using the gradient phase discontinuities that meta-mirrors provide, we show that the incident wave can be reflected anomalously with a broad angle range of negative reflections. Such reversed behaviors promote the immediate applications for the planar meta-mirrors to steer the signals more arbitrarily and the convex meta-mirrors to focus and collimate electromagnetic fields. We practically implement these negative reflecting meta-mirrors through an arrangement of subwavelength ring patches and generate the desired phase distribution by also considering the incident angle. Finally, the experiments are carried out to verify the functionality of the convex meta-mirror firstly, and the performances of the planar meta-mirror are also tested by further building up a dual reflector system with the demonstration of obtaining the plane wave from the convex meta-mirror and then having the well collimated beam negative reflected by the planar meta-mirror. The proposed design should be readily applicable to a wide range of electromagnetic problems, especially for devising smart planar illusion devices, and highly directive antennas mounting on convex surfaces of various platforms.