Electromagnetic Wave Theory and Applications

Contains table of contents for Section 3, reports on six research projects and a list of publications and conference papers.Joint Services Electronics Program Contract DAAL03-89-C-0001National Science Foundation Grant ECS 86-20029Schlumberger- Doll ResearchU.S. Army Research Office Contract DAAL03 88-K-0057U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Contract N00014-90-J-1002National Aeronautics and Space Administration Grant NAGW-1617U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-89-J-1107National Aeronautics and Space Administration Grant NAGW-1272National Aeronautics and Space Administration Agreement 958461U.S. Army - Corps of Engineers Contract DACA39-87-K-0022U.S. Air Force - Electronic Systems Division Contract F19628-88-K-0013U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-89-J-1019Digital Equipment CorporationIBM CorporationU.S. Department of Transportation Contract DTRS-57-88-C-00078Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency Contract MDA972-90-C-002

Realistic FDTD GPR antenna models optimized using a novel linear/nonlinear Full-Waveform Inversion

Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) modelling of Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) is becoming regularly used in model-based interpretation methods like full waveform inversion (FWI), and machine learning schemes using synthetic training data. Oversimplifications in such forward models can compromise the accuracy and realism with which real GPR responses can be simulated, and this degrades the overall performance of the aforementioned interpretation techniques. Therefore, a forward model must be able to accurately simulate every part of the GPR problem that can affect the resulting scattered field. A key element is the antenna system and excitation waveform, so the model must contain a complete description of the antenna including the excitation source and waveform, the geometry, and the dielectric properties of materials in the antenna. The challenge is that some of these parameters are not known or easily measured, especially for commercial GPR antennas that are used in practice. We present a novel hybrid linear/non-linear FWI approach which can be used, with only knowledge of the basic antenna geometry, to simultaneously optimise the dielectric properties and excitation waveform of the antenna, and minimise the error between real and synthetic data. The accuracy and stability of our proposed methodology is demonstrated by successfully modelling a Geophysical Survey Systems (GSSI) Inc. 1.5~GHz commercial antenna. Our framework allows accurate models of GPR antennas to be developed without requiring detailed knowledge of every component in the antenna. This is significant because it allows commercial GPR antennas, regularly used in GPR surveys, to be more readily simulated

Nanophotonics for dark materials, filters, and optical magnetism

Research on nanophotonic structures for three application areas is described, a near perfect optical absorber based on a graphene/dielectric stack, an ultraviolet bandpass filter formed with an aluminum/dielectric stack, and structures exhibiting homogenizable magnetic properties at infrared frequencies. The graphene stack can be treated as a effective, homogenized medium that can be designed to reflect little light and absorb an astoundingly high amount per unit thickness, making it an ideal dark material and providing a new avenue for photonic devices based on two-dimensional materials. Another material stack arrangement with thin layers of metal and insulator forms a multi-cavity filter that can effectively act as an ultraviolet filter without the usual sensitivity of the incident angle of the light. This is important in sensing applications where the visible part of the spectrum is to be removed, allowing detection of ultraviolet signals. Finally, achieving a magnetic material that functions at optical frequencies would be of enormous scientific and technological impact, including for imaging, sensing and optical storage applications. The challenge has been to find a guiding principle and a suitable arrangement of constituent materials. A lattice of dielectric spheres is shown to provide a legitimately homogenized material with a magnetic response. This should pave the way for experimental studies. More specifically, a graphene stack is designed, fabricated and characterized. The structure shows strong absorption of light. Spectroscopic ellipsometry is used to obtain the complex sheet conductivity of graphene. Further modeling results establish the graphene stack as the darkest optical material, with lower reflectivity and higher per-unit-length absorption than alternative light-absorbing materials. An optical bandpass filter based on a metal/dielectric structure is modeled, showing performance that is largely independent of the angle of incidence. Parametric evaluations of the reflection phase shift at the metal-dielectric interface provide insight and design information. Filter passbands in the ultraviolet (UV) through visible or longer wavelengths can be achieved by engineering the dielectric thickness and selecting a metal with an appropriate plasma frequency, as demonstrated in simulations. A lattice of suitable dielectric particles is shown to fulfill the requirements for a magnetic optical material. Using Mie theory, the microscopic origin of the magnetic response is explicitly identified as being due to the magnetic dipole resonance of an isolated sphere. This provides a design basis, and dielectric and lattice requirements with candidate dielectrics that will allow magnetic materials to be designed and fabricated for optical applications are presented

Nanophotonics for dark materials, filters, and optical magnetism

Research on nanophotonic structures for three application areas is described, a near perfect optical absorber based on a graphene/dielectric stack, an ultraviolet bandpass filter formed with an aluminum/dielectric stack, and structures exhibiting homogenizable magnetic properties at infrared frequencies. The graphene stack can be treated as a effective, homogenized medium that can be designed to reflect little light and absorb an astoundingly high amount per unit thickness, making it an ideal dark material and providing a new avenue for photonic devices based on two-dimensional materials. Another material stack arrangement with thin layers of metal and insulator forms a multi-cavity filter that can effectively act as an ultraviolet filter without the usual sensitivity of the incident angle of the light. This is important in sensing applications where the visible part of the spectrum is to be removed, allowing detection of ultraviolet signals. Finally, achieving a magnetic material that functions at optical frequencies would be of enormous scientific and technological impact, including for imaging, sensing and optical storage applications. The challenge has been to find a guiding principle and a suitable arrangement of constituent materials. A lattice of dielectric spheres is shown to provide a legitimately homogenized material with a magnetic response. This should pave the way for experimental studies. More specifically, a graphene stack is designed, fabricated and characterized. The structure shows strong absorption of light. Spectroscopic ellipsometry is used to obtain the complex sheet conductivity of graphene. Further modeling results establish the graphene stack as the darkest optical material, with lower reflectivity and higher per-unit-length absorption than alternative light-absorbing materials. An optical bandpass filter based on a metal/dielectric structure is modeled, showing performance that is largely independent of the angle of incidence. Parametric evaluations of the reflection phase shift at the metal-dielectric interface provide insight and design information. Filter passbands in the ultraviolet (UV) through visible or longer wavelengths can be achieved by engineering the dielectric thickness and selecting a metal with an appropriate plasma frequency, as demonstrated in simulations. A lattice of suitable dielectric particles is shown to fulfill the requirements for a magnetic optical material. Using Mie theory, the microscopic origin of the magnetic response is explicitly identified as being due to the magnetic dipole resonance of an isolated sphere. This provides a design basis, and dielectric and lattice requirements with candidate dielectrics that will allow magnetic materials to be designed and fabricated for optical applications are presented

Electromagnetic Waves

This volume is based on the contributions of several authors in electromagnetic waves propagations. Several issues are considered. The contents of most of the chapters are highlighting non classic presentation of wave propagation and interaction with matters. This volume bridges the gap between physics and engineering in these issues. Each chapter keeps the author notation that the reader should be aware of as he reads from chapter to the other

Full-wave Nonlinear Inverse Scattering for Acoustic and Electromagnetic Breast Imaging.

Acoustic and electromagnetic full-wave nonlinear inverse scattering techniques are explored in both theory and experiment with the ultimate aim of noninvasively mapping the material properties of the breast. There is evidence that benign and malignant breast tissue have different acoustic and electrical properties and imaging these properties directly could provide higher quality images with better diagnostic certainty. In this dissertation, acoustic and electromagnetic inverse scattering algorithms are first developed and validated in simulation. The forward solvers and optimization cost functions are modified from traditional forms in order to handle the large or lossy imaging scenes present in ultrasonic and microwave breast imaging. An antenna model is then presented, modified, and experimentally validated for microwave S-parameter measurements. Using the antenna model, a new electromagnetic volume integral equation is derived in order to link the material properties of the inverse scattering algorithms to microwave S-parameters measurements allowing direct comparison of model predictions and measurements in the imaging algorithms. This volume integral equation is validated with several experiments and used as the basis of a free-space inverse scattering experiment, where images of the dielectric properties of plastic objects are formed without the use of calibration targets. These efforts are used as the foundation of a solution and formulation for the numerical characterization of a microwave near-field cavity-based breast imaging system. The system is constructed and imaging results of simple targets are given. Finally, the same techniques are used to explore a new self-characterization method for commercial ultrasound probes. The method is used to calibrate an ultrasound inverse scattering experiment and imaging results of simple targets are presented. This work has demonstrated the feasibility of quantitative microwave inverse scattering by way of a self-consistent characterization formalism, and has made headway in the same area for ultrasound.Ph.D.Applied PhysicsUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91585/1/mshaynes_1.pd

A study of planar inverted-F antennas in a dielectric enclosure

Demand for small and low-profile antennas has greatly increased due to the desire for miniaturisation of modern-day mobile radio electronic terminals. Such an antenna is often integrated into the dielectric casing of a terminal, or independently enclosed within a dielectric radome to provide a protection from operating environments and keep the system more compact. However, the dielectric casing or radome may interact strongly with the antenna and result in losses in performance. The primary focus of this dissertation is to investigate and enhance the performance of Planar Inverted-F Antennas (PIFAs) when enclosed in dielectric casings or radomes for applications in mobile radio communications. PIFAs have attracted much interest due to their small volume, low profile structures and electrical characteristics compatible with existing specifications, making it a promising candidate for mobile radio applications. Therefore, the design of a single band PIFA on a finite ground plane, operating in the 900 MHz band is first presented. It is found that the effect of the finite ground plane must be considered to achieve an optimum performance of the PIFA. Then the performance of this antenna in the presence of a dielectric cover layer is investigated and evaluated in terms of resonant frequency, bandwidth and efficiency. In this study, the dielectric layer represents the dielectric casing of a device where the antenna is much closer to the top part of the casing than to the other side parts whose effect can then be ignored. Computer simulations of performance are based on the Method of Moments (MOM) and have been validated by measurements. This study shows that a dielectric cover layer will strongly interact with the antenna with the result that the antenna performance may move outside the design specifications.Therefore, it is concluded that the dielectric cover layer must always be taken into account in the design stage. In addition, the input and radiation characteristics of a PIFA enclosed within a rectangular dielectric radome for both the 900 MHz and 2400 MHz frequency bands are analysed using the MOM. This research concentrates on the effect of each individual part of the rectangular dielectric radome on the overall performance. It is observed that each individual part has a different degree of effect on both the input and radiation characteristics of the PIFA, and that the effect is more significant at the higher frequency band. The study indicates that the effect of the dielectric radome on the performance of the antenna can be minimised by carefully choosing its location and orientation within the radome. Another indication is that an optimised dielectric radome design can both miniaturise the antenna and at the same time improve the bandwidth without sacrificing other performance parameters such as the gain. Furthermore, an analytical approach based on the Transmission Line Model (TLM) is applied to estimate the input characteristics of a PIFA having a dielectric cover layer. The results calculated based on this approach are compared with MOM computed results. A reasonably good agreement between them has been demonstrated. It is suggested that the TLM model could form part of an efficient Computer Aided Design (CAD) tool for design engineers to provide initial design parameters.Finally, a new dual-band PIFA is proposed. A design example for the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) frequency bands of 900 MHz and 2400 MHz is given. Measurement validation of the design is presented. The influence of the dielectric cover layer on the resonant frequency, bandwidth, gain and radiation patterns of this antenna is also examined by simulation. In this study, it is found that a simple capacitive disk arrangement not only provides a single feed for dual-band operation but also gives flexibility to allow individual control of the two desired band resonances

Exploiting Microstructural Instabilities in Solids and Structures: From Metamaterials to Structural Transitions

Instabilities in solids and structures are ubiquitous across all length and time scales, and engineering design principles have commonly aimed at preventing instability. However, over the past two decades, engineering mechanics has undergone a paradigm shift, away from avoiding instability and toward taking advantage thereof. At the core of all instabilities—both at the microstructural scale in materials and at the macroscopic, structural level—lies a nonconvex potential energy landscape which is responsible, e.g., for phase transitions and domain switching, localization, pattern formation, or structural buckling and snapping. Deliberately driving a system close to, into, and beyond the unstable regime has been exploited to create new materials systems with superior, interesting, or extreme physical properties. Here, we review the state-of-the-art in utilizing mechanical instabilities in solids and structures at the microstructural level in order to control macroscopic (meta)material performance. After a brief theoretical review, we discuss examples of utilizing material instabilities (from phase transitions and ferroelectric switching to extreme composites) as well as examples of exploiting structural instabilities in acoustic and mechanical metamaterials