Image of the Week: Flexible, polarization-controllable diffusion metasurface with optical transparency

By Georgia Longstaff on November 13, 2017

Flexible and polarization-controllable diffusion metasurface with optical transparency, Image taken from Yaqiang Zhuang et al 2017 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 50 465102, © IOP Publishing, All Rights Reserved.

The 3D scattering patterns of (a) DM under x-polarized wave normal incidence, and PCDM under (b) x-polarized and (c) y-polarized wave normal incidence at 10 GHz. Image taken from Yaqiang Zhuang et al 2017 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 50 465102, © IOP Publishing, All Rights Reserved.

This week’s Image of the Week comes from JPhysD article “Flexible and polarization-controllable diffusion metasurface with optical transparency“, Yaqiang Zhuang et al 2017 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 50 465102. Metasurfaces- planar metamaterials of sub-wavelength thickness- are structures with the ability to manipulate electromagnetic waves in terms of their amplitude, phase, and polarization. The field of metamaterials has considerable interest due to their ability to produce electromagetic phenomena not seen in nature, allowing for a range of applications, such as in polarization-converters, high-gains lens antennas, and beam splitters, in addition to having applications in stealth technology.

This paper proposes an optically transparent novel coding metasurface, capable of polarization-controllable diffusion scattering. The authors show how their designed polarization-controllable diffusion metasurface (PCDM) has the necessary requirements for potential use in the window coverings of stealth aircraft, by reducing radar cross-section, helping escape radar detection, whilst keeping the windows transparent. The above figure shows the 3D scattering patterns of a conventional diffusion metasurface (DM) (a) compared to the patterns from the proposed PCDM.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Image taken from Yaqiang Zhuang et al 2017 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 50 465102, © IOP Publishing, All Rights Reserved.