Controlling the direction of propagation of surface plasmons via graded index effective dielectric media

In this work, we propose a mechanism to steer and tailor surface plasmon propagation by using graded index concepts. In this approach, a block of dielectric with fixed thickness is placed on top of a semi-infinite metal. The beam steerers are then designed by simply changing the height of the dielectric in the direction perpendicular to the propagation axis. The analytical design is presented and several structures are evaluated with the ability to steer the incoming surface plasmons at any desired output angle.V.P.-P. is supported by the Newcastle University (Newcastle University Research Fellow)

Tripod-loop metasurfaces for terahertz-sensing applications: a comparison

The high electric field intensity achieved on the surface of sensors based on metasurfaces (metasensors) makes them an excellent alternative for sensing applications where the volume of the sample to be identified is tiny (for instance, thin-film sensing devices). Various shapes and geometries have been proposed recently for the design of these metasensors unit-cells (meta-atoms) such as split ring resonators or hole arrays, among others. In this paper, we propose, design, and evaluate two types of tripod metasurfaces with different complexity in their geometry. An in-depth comparison of their performance is presented when using them as thin-film sensor devices. The meta-atoms of the proposed metasensors consist of a simple tripod and a hollow tripod structure. From numerical calculations, it is shown that the best geometry to perform thin-film sensing is the compact hollow tripod (due to the highest electric field on its surface) with a mean sensitivity of 3.72 × 10−5 nm−1. Different modifications are made to this structure to improve this value, such as introducing arms in the design and rotating the metallic pattern 30 degrees. The best sensitivity achieved for extremely thin film analytes (5–25 nm thick) has an average value of 1.42 × 10−4 nm, which translates into an extremely high improvement of 381% with respect to the initial hollow tripod structure. Finally, a comparison with other designs found in the literature shows that our design is at the top of the ranking, improving the overall performance by more than one order of magnitude. These results highlight the importance of using metastructures with more complex geometries so that a higher electric field intensity distribution and, therefore, designs with better performance can be obtained.This research was funded by Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Project RTI2018-094475-B-I00 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER,UE)

Phase reversal technique applied to fishnet metalenses

In this work, the fishnet metamaterial is applied to several converging metalenses by combining the zoning, reference phase, and phase reversal techniques. First, the zoning and reference phase techniques are implemented in several metalenses at 55 GHz ( λ 0 = 5.45 m m ) with a short focal length of 1.5 λ 0 . Then, the phase reversal technique is applied to these metalenses by switching from a concave to a convex profile in order to change the phase distribution inside of them. The designs are evaluated both numerically and experimentally demonstrating that chromatic dispersion (the shift of the position of the focus at different frequencies) is reduced when using the phase-reversed profiles. It is shown how the position of the focus remains at the same location within a relatively broadband frequency range of ~4% around the design frequency without affecting the overall behaviour of the metalenses. The best performance is achieved with the design that combines both reference phase and phase reversal techniques, with an experimental position of the focus of 1.75 λ 0 , reduced side lobes, and a power enhancement of 6.5 dB. The metalenses designed here may find applications in situations where a wideband response and low side lobes are required because of the reduced chromatic aberrations of the focus.This work was partially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad with European Union Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) funds (TEC2014-51902-C2-2-R). Victor Pacheco-Peña is supported by Newcastle University (Newcastle University Research Fellow). Igor V. Minin and Oleg V. Minin were partially supported by the Mendeleev scientific fund of Tomsk State University

Super-oscillatory metalens at terahertz for enhanced focusing with reduced side lobes

In this paper, we design and numerically demonstrate an ultra-thin super-oscillatory metalens with a resolution below the diffraction limit. The zones of the lens are implemented using metasurface concepts with hexagonal unit cells. This way, the transparency and, hence, efficiency is optimized, compared to the conventional transparent–opaque zoning approach that introduces, inevitably, a high reflection in the opaque regions. Furthermore, a novel two-step optimization technique, based on evolutionary algorithms, is developed to reduce the side lobes and boost the intensity at the focus. After the design process, we demonstrate that the metalens is able to generate a focal spot of 0.46λ0 (1.4 times below the resolution limit) at the design focal length of 10λ0 with reduced side lobes (the side lobe level being approximately −11 dB). The metalens is optimized at 0.327 THz, and has been validated with numerical simulations.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad with European Union Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) funds, grant number TEC2014-51902-C2-2-R