Topologically protected elastic waves in phononic metamaterials

Topological states of quantum matter exhibit unique disorder-immune surface states protected by underlying nontrivial topological invariants of the bulk. Such immunity from backscattering makes topological surface or edge states ideal carriers for both classical and quantum information. So far, topological matters have been explored only in the realms of electronics and photonics, with limited range of bulk properties and largely immutable materials. These constraints thus impose severe performance trade-offs in experimentally realizable topologically ordered states. In contrast, phononic metamaterials not only provide access to a much wider range of material properties, but also allow temporal modulation in the non-adiabatic regime. Here, from the first-principles we demonstrate numerically the first phononic topological metamaterial in an elastic-wave analogue of the quantum spin Hall effect. A dual-scale phononic crystal slab is used to support two effective spins of phonon over a broad bandwidth, and strong spin-orbit coupling is realized by breaking spatial mirror symmetry. By preserving the spin polarization with an external load or spatial symmetry, phononic edge states are shown to be robust against scattering from discrete defects as well as disorders in the continuum. Our system opens up the possibility of realizing topological materials for phonons in both static and time-dependent regimes.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure

Compact Triple-Mode Microwave Dielectric Resonator Filters

This paper presents a novel and compact triple-mode dielectric resonator (DR) band- pass filter (BPF) based on a single waveguide cavity. A triple-mode resonator can be achieved by pairing the degenerate EH₁₁ modes with a TM01δ mode. The DR structure is composed of two slitted pieces of dielectric pucks that are placed in the middle of a cylindrical metallic cavity. The resonator offers a size reduction ratio of about 15.6% compared with equivalent air-filled coaxial filters. A coaxial probe is used to excite the degenerate EH₁₁ modes while the TM01 mode is excited using a vertical hole etched in the ceramic pucks. Finally, a 3rd order generalised Chebyshev BPF is simulated using HFSS software. The filter has finite transmission zeros(TZ) on the high or low side of the passband

A TE11 Dual-Mode Monoblock Dielectric Resonator Filter

A novel TE11 monoblock dual-mode dielectric resonator filter is presented in this paper. The proposed filter is made of a single piece of ceramic with silver plated external surfaces and metallic lids for hosting tuning elements. The dominant TE11 dual-mode is supported by H-shape dielectric resonator having r =45. The resonator is ultra-compact in size and offers a maximized space utilization since no metallic housing is required. In addition, the proposed resonator offers a high unloaded quality factor, reasonably wide spurious window and lend itself to implement tunability. One prototype filter operating at 1.96 GHz with 50-MHz bandwidth is designed

Dual Mode Suspended Substrate Stripline (SSS) Filter

Evolution of wireless communication systems towards high flexibility, low cost and high efficiency leads to tremendous activity in the area of microwave filters. In an RF front-end of a cellular radio base station, signals are being transmitted and received simultaneously. In the receive band, there are chances of intermodulation products from the power amplifier being fed to the receiver,thus the transmit filter must have a very high level of signal rejection. Furthermore, the transmit filter must also have low passband insertion loss since it impacts the power transmitted and the overall transmit system efficiency. Recently, filters with dual-mode operation were being investigated due to their ability to produce two degenerate modes using a single physical structure; therefore, the size and cost of the filter can be reduced without compromising any figure-of-merits. A dual mode suspended substrate stripline filter is presented in this thesis. These filters enable achieving low insertion loss, high Q, high selectivity and good spurious response. Initially, a dual mode ring resonator structure is investigated using suspended substrate stripline technology. This technology is used due to its advantages which are comparable to microstrip or any other planar transmission lines. The HFSS three dimensional finite element method (FEM) is used to evaluate the resonant frequency, quality factor and the first harmonics.A second order suspended substrate stripline filter was designed with capacitive coupled input and output feeding method. The input and output feed were positioned 90 degree from each other while a notch was used in this filter to couple two degenerate modes which also control the bandwidth of the filter. A high performance Generalized Chebychev filter was designed to meet the stringent electrical requirement in the RF front-end of a cellular radio base station. With this fourth order filter, four finite frequency transmission zeros were achieved due to phase cancellation between two paths which results in high selectivity filter response. Metal tuning screws were added to improve any practical imperfections. Finally an asymmetrical Generalized Chebychev filter was designed with real frequency transmission zeros positioned on one side of the passband. With this design, the aim of achieving higher selectivity filter response above the passband was demonstrated

Planar microwave filters with electronically tunability and other novel configurations

In order to meet the increasing demands of advance wireless communications and radar systems, several novel types of bandpass filters and bandstop filters have been developed in this thesis. A new type of varactor-tuned dual-mode bandpass filters have been presented to achieve a nearly constant absolute bandwidth over a wide tuning range by using a single DC bias circuit. Since the two operating modes (i.e., the odd and even modes) in a dualmode microstrip open-loop resonator do not couple to each other, tuning the passband frequency is accomplished by merely changing the two modal frequencies proportionally. Design equations and procedures are derived, and two two-pole tunable bandpass filters and a four-pole tunable bandpass filter of this type are demonstrated experimentally. Miniature microstrip doublet dual-mode filters that exhibit quasi-elliptic function response without using any cross coupling have been developed. It shows that a single two-pole filter or the doublet can produce two transmission zeros resulting from a double behaviour of the dual-mode resonator of this type. Electromagnetic (EM) simulation and experiment results of the proposed filters are described. Parallel feed configuration of a microstrip quasi-elliptic function bandpass filter has been built with a pair of open-loop dual-mode resonators. By employing this new coupling scheme, a novel filter topology with three-pole quasi-elliptic function frequency response can be obtained, leading to good passband performance, such as low insertion loss and good matching at the mid-band of passband. A designed three-pole bandpass filter of this type is demonstrated experimentally. A new class of dual-band filters based on non-degenerate dual-mode microstrip slow-wave open-loop resonators, which support two non-degenerate modes that do not couple, have been introduced. Different feed schemes that affect the filtering characteristics are investigated. Examples of dual-band filters of this type are described with simulation and experiment results. iii In order to achieve a wide spurious-free upper passband, a novel design of bandstop filter with cancellation of first spurious mode by using coupled three-section step impedance resonators (SIRs) has been developed. This cancellation occurs when two transmission poles coincide with the first spurious mode (transmission zero) by properly choosing the step impedance ratio and the gap between the SIR and the main transmission line. A stripline bandstop filter and a microstrip bandstop filter of this type are designed, fabricated and tested. As a preliminary investigation, the microstrip filter is tuned electronically using ferroelectric thin film varactors

Miniaturized High-Q Tunable RF Filters

This dissertation focuses on the investigation and development of novel efficient tuning techniques and the design of miniaturized high-Q tunable RF filters for high-performance reconfigurable systems and applications. First, a detailed survey of the available tuning concepts and state-of-art tunable filters is provided. Then, a novel so-called inset resonator configuration is presented for the applications of fixed and tunable coaxial filters. The design procedure of frequency tunable filters with constant absolute bandwidth (CABW) is described, and various tunable inset filters are implemented, offering many desirable merits, including the wide tuning range and stable high-Q with minimum variation. For wide octave frequency tuning ranges with CABW, a second novel concept is presented using so-called re-entrant caps tuners. Beside simplicity and compactness, this technique also features enhanced spurious performance and wider tuning capabilities than the conventional means. Also, in this dissertation, various miniaturized reconfigurable dual-band/dual-mode bandpass filters and diplexers are presented using compact dual-mode high-Q TM-mode dielectric resonators. Furthermore, a novel microfluidic-based ultra-wide frequency tuning technique for TM010-mode dielectric resonators and filters is introduced in this dissertation. In addition to the very wide tuning window, this mechanism has key advantages of low-cost, simplicity, and intrinsic switch-off. Lastly, the dissertation includes a novel bandwidth reconfiguration concept with multi-octave tuning using a single element for coaxial bandpass filters. This mechanism brings many features including the fast tuning, constant high-Q, intrinsic switch-off, and wide BW-reconfiguration

Mid-infrared frequency combs

Laser frequency combs are coherent light sources that emit a broad spectrum consisting of discrete, evenly spaced narrow lines, each having an absolute frequency measurable within the accuracy of an atomic clock. Their development, a decade ago, in the near-infrared and visible domains has revolutionized frequency metrology with numerous windfalls into other fields such as astronomy or attosecond science. Extension of frequency comb techniques to the mid-infrared spectral region is now under exploration. Versatile mid-infrared frequency comb generators, based on novel laser gain media, nonlinear frequency conversion or microresonators, promise to significantly expand the tree of applications of frequency combs. In particular, novel approaches to molecular spectroscopy in the fingerprint region, with dramatically improved precision, sensitivity, recording time and/or spectral bandwidth may spark off new discoveries in the various fields relevant to molecular sciences