Modern wireless communication is one of the most important information technologies, but its system architecture has been unchanged for many years. Here, we propose a much simpler architecture for wireless communication systems based on metasurface. We firstly propose a time-domain digital coding metasurface to reach a simple but efficient method to manipulate spectral distributions of harmonics. Under dynamic modulations of phases on surface reflectivity, we could achieve accurate controls to different harmonics in a programmable way to reach many unusual functions like frequency cloaking and velocity illusion, owing to the temporal gradient introduced by digital signals encoded by '0' and '1' sequences. A theoretical model is presented and experimentally validated to reveal the nonlinear process. Based on the time-domain digital coding metasurface, we propose and realize a new wireless communication system in binary frequency-shift keying (BFSK) frame, which has much more simplified architecture than the traditional BFSK with excellent performance for real-time message transmission. The presented work, from new concept to new system, will find important applications in modern information technologies.
Metasurfaces, ultrathin and planar electromagnetic devices with sub-wavelength unit cells, have recently attracted enormous attention for their powerful control over electromagnetic waves, from microwave to visible range. With tunability added to the unit cells, the programmable metasurfaces enable us to benefit from multiple unique functionalities controlled by external stimuli. In this review paper, we will discuss the recent progress in the field of programmable metasurfaces and elaborate on different approaches to realize them, with the tunability from global aspects, to local aspects, and…
Metasurfaces, the two-dimensional counterpart of metamaterials, have caught great attention thanks to their powerful control over electromagnetic waves. Recent times have seen the emergence of a variety of metasurfaces exhibiting not only countless functionalities, but also a reconfigurable or even programmable response. Reconfigurability, however, entails the integration of tuning and control circuits within the metasurface structure and, as this new paradigm moves forward, new reliability challenges may arise. This paper examines, for the first time, the reliability problem in programmable m…
Metamaterials and metasurfaces have given possibilities for manipulating electromagnetic (EM) waves that in the past would have seemed impossible. The majority of metasurface designs are suitable for a particular frequency and angle of incidence. One long-sought objective is the design of programmable metasurfaces to dynamically manipulate a variety of incoming EM frequencies and angles. In order to do this, a large-scale mesh of networked chips are required below the metasurface, which apart from adapting electrical impedance properties, also communicate with each other, thus relaying informa…
Electromagnetic environments are becoming increasingly complex and congested, creating a growing challenge for systems that rely on electromagnetic waves for communication, sensing, or imaging, particularly in reverberating environments. The use of programmable metasurfaces provides a potential means of directing waves to optimize wireless channels on-demand, ensuring reliable operation and protecting sensitive electronic components. Here we introduce a technique that combines a deep learning network with a binary programmable metasurface to shape waves in complex reverberant electromagnetic e…
We introduce the concept of smart radio environments, currently intensely studied for wireless communication in metasurface-programmable meter-scaled environments (e.g., inside rooms), on the chip scale. Wireless networks-on-chips (WNoCs) are a candidate technology to improve inter-core communication on chips but current proposals are plagued by a dilemma: either the received signal is weak, or it is significantly reverberated such that the on-off-keying modulation speed must be throttled. Here, we overcome this vexing problem by endowing the wireless on-chip environment with in situ programma…
We present for the first time an experimental demonstration on the energy allocation of commodity Wi-Fi signals in a programmable and inexpensive way. To that end, we design an electronically-programmable phase-binary coding metasurface, working at the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi frequency band, to manipulate dynamically and arbitrarily the spatial distribution of commodity Wi-Fi signals. Meanwhile, an efficient algorithm is developed to find the optimal coding sequence of the programmable metasurface such that the spatial energy of commodity Wi-Fi signals can be instantly controlled in a desirable way. Sele…
A tunable metasurface absorber is presented in this work using an optically-programmable capacitor as the tuning element. The tuning element does not employ conventional semiconductor technologies to operate but rather a bases its tuning by changing the optomechanical properties of its dielectric, poly disperse red 1 acrylate (PDR1A). Doing so there are no conventional semiconductor devices in the RF signal path. The metasurface operates at a design frequency of 5.5 GHz and it achieves an optically-tuned bandwidth of 150 MHz, from 5.50 GHz to 5.65 GHz.
Over the last couple of years, the digital coding acoustic metasurfaces have been developed rapidly as a highly active research area for their unique and flexible manipulation of acoustic wavefronts. Nevertheless, all recent attentions in the acoustic community have been mainly concentrated on space-encoded architectures, leaving the room free for benefiting from the unique features of spatiotemporally modulated metasurfaces. By entering the world of time, here, we propose a space-time-coding acoustic digital metasurface with exotic ability to dynamically transfer the energy of the carrier aco…
Programmable metasurfaces have garnered significant attention as they confer unprecedented control over the electromagnetic response of any surface. Such feature has given rise to novel design paradigms such as Software-Defined Metamaterials (SDM) and Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS) with multiple groundbreaking applications. However, the development of programmable metasurfaces tailored to the particularities of a potentially broad application pool becomes a daunting task because the design space becomes remarkably large. This paper aims to ease the design process by proposing a meth…
We propose to achieve joint detections of frequency and direction of arrival in wideband using single sensor based on an active metasurface with programmable transmission states of pass and stop. By integrating two PIN diodes with the opposite directions into the proposed single-layer and ultrathin meta-atom, the transmission performance with 10 dB difference between the pass and stop states is realized in the bandwidth from 5.9 GHz to 8.8 GHz using field-circuit co-simulations. Accordingly, random receiving patterns are generated by controlling the programmable metasurface composed of the swi…
Tunable metasurfaces are ultra-thin, artificial electromagnetic components that provide engineered and externally adjustable functionalities. The programmable metasurface, the HyperSurFace, concept consists in integrating controllers within the metasurface that interact locally and communicate globally to obtain a given electromagnetic behaviour. Here, we address the design constraints introduced by both functions accommodated by the programmable metasurface, i.e., the desired metasurface operation and the unit cells wireless communication enabling such programmable functionality. The design p…
On-chip mode-division multiplexing (MDM) has been emerging as a promising technology to further enhance the link capacity and bandwidth of data communications with multiple mode channels. Both mode converters and mode exchangers are indispensable fundamental components for flexible mode operations. While several configurations have been developed previously, it is still very challenging to efficiently manipulate arbitrary high-order modes in a versatile way to reduce the R&D and prototyping costs. Here we initiate a breakthrough with a simple yet universal generic mode operator building block …
Beam steering is one of the main challenges in energy-efficient and high-speed infrared light communication. To date, active beam-steering schemes based on a spatial light modulator (SLM) or micro-electrical mechanical system (MEMS) mirror, as well as the passive ones based on diffractive gratings, have been demonstrated for infrared light communication. Here, for the first time to our knowledge, an infrared beam is steered by 35° on one side empowered by a passively field-programmable metasurface. By combining the centralized control of wavelength and polarization, a remote passive metasurfac…
Programmable metasurfaces incorporated with tunable materials controlled by external stimuli can provide an unprecedented degree of freedom in dynamical wave manipulation in real-time. Beyond the scope of isotropic reconfigurable metasurfaces that only support unique tunable responses for excitation with a certain single-polarization, here, for the first time a new generation of ultrafast reprogrammable multi-functional anisotropic metasurface is reported to enable interchangeable missions independently for two orthogonal linearly polarized THz wavefront excitations. The reconfigurability of t…
Molding the flow of light at the nanoscale has been a grand challenge of nanophotonics for decades. It is now widely recognized that metasurfaces represent a chip-scale nanophotonics array technology capable of comprehensively controlling the wavefront of light via appropriately configuring subwavelength antenna elements. Here, we demonstrate a reconfigurable metasurface that is universal, i.e., notionally capable of providing diverse optical functions in the telecommunication wavelength regime, using a compact, lightweight, electronically-controlled array with no moving parts. By electro-opti…
The microwave imaging based on inverse scattering strategy holds important promising in the science, engineering, and military applications. Here we present a compressed-sensing (CS) inspired large- aperture computational single-sensor imager using 1-bit programmable coding metasurface for efficient microwave imaging, which is an instance of the coded aperture imaging system. However, unlike a conventional coded aperture imager where elements on random mask are manipulated in the pixel-wised manner, the controllable elements in the proposed scheme are encoded in a column-row-wised manner. As a…
Optical prisms are made of glass and map temporal frequencies into spatial frequencies by decomposing incident white light into its constituent colors and refract them into different directions. Conventional prisms suffer from their volumetric bulky and heavy structure and their material parameters are dictated by the Lorentz reciprocity theorem. Considering various applications of prisms in wave engineering and their growing applications in the invisible spectrum and antenna applications, there is a demand for compact apparatuses that are capable of providing prism functionality in a reconfig…
Programmable metasurfaces for future photonic artificial intelligence
Colorado School of Mines（科罗拉多矿业学院）；Université Côte d’Azur（蔚蓝海岸大学）；LAAS, Université de Toulouse（图卢兹大学LAAS实验室）；Université de Rennes（雷恩大学）；Department of Physics, Colorado School of Mines（科罗拉多矿业学院物理系）；Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Boston University（波士顿大学电气与计算机工程系）
Neuromorphic photonics has recently emerged as a promising hardware accelerator, with significant potential speed and energy advantages over digital electronics, for machine learning algorithms such as neural networks of various types. Integrated photonic networks are particularly powerful in performing analog computing of matrix-vector multiplication (MVM) as they afford unparalleled speed and bandwidth density for data transmission. Incorporating nonvolatile phase-change materials in integrated photonic devices enables indispensable programming and in-memory computing capabilities for on-chi…
The smartphone, as a media device, should offer a large-size screen and fast data rates in a well-packed device. Emergent 5G technologies based on millimeter waves need efficiently radiating antennas integrated into devices whose bodies (especially glass screens) behave as waveguides in the antenna frequency bands. Using the concept of retroreflective surfaces, this work proposes a compact metasurface located below the smartphone glass screen which reduces surface-wave excitation and propagation, and significantly improves the radiation pattern and efficiency of millimeter-wave antennas integr…
Achieving the very special condition of perfect absorption (PA) in a complex scattering enclosure promises to enable a wealth of applications in secure communication, precision sensing, wireless power transfer, analog signal processing and random lasing. Consequently, a lot of recent research effort was dedicated to proposing wave-front shaping protocols to implement coherent PA in a complex scattering environment. Here, instead of shaping the impinging wave front and tuning the system's attenuation, we propose the conceptually different route of solely tweaking the randomness of the complex s…
A metasurface particle with independent transmission and reflection full phase coverage for circularly polarized waves is introduced. This particle is constituted of two parts, one controlling the power splitting and the reflection phase, and the other one controlling the transmission phase, both leveraging the Pancharatnam-Berry phase principle. Given its unique flexibility, this particle may find various applications in metasurface technology.
In the quest to realize analog signal processing using sub-wavelength metasurfaces, in this paper, we demonstrate the first experimental demonstration of programmable time-modulated metasurface processors based on the key properties of spatial Fourier transformation. Exploiting space-time coding strategy enables local, independent, and real-time engineering of not only amplitude but also phase profile of the contributing reflective digital meta-atoms at both central and harmonic frequencies. Several illustrative examples are demonstrated to show that the proposed multifunctional calculus metas…
Despite recent advances in active metaoptics, wide dynamic range combined with high-speed reconfigurable solutions is still elusive. Phase-change materials (PCMs) offer a compelling platform for metasurface optical elements, owing to the large index contrast and fast yet stable phase transition properties. Here, we experimentally demonstrate an in situ electrically-driven reprogrammable metasurface by harnessing the unique properties of a phase-change chalcogenide alloy, Ge$_{2}$Sb$_{2}$Te$_{5}$ (GST), in order to realize fast, non-volatile, reversible, multilevel, and pronounced optical modul…
In this paper, we investigate the scattering of surface waves on reactive impedance boundaries when the surface impedance undergoes a sudden change in time. We report three exotic wave phenomena. First, it is shown that by switching the value of the surface capacitance of the boundary, the velocity of surface waves can be fully controlled, and the power of reflected and transmitted surface waves are amplified. Second, we show that when a capacitive boundary is switched to an inductive one, the surface wave stops completely, with a "frozen" static magnetic field distribution. The static magneti…
In this study, we designed a metasurface based on Al/SiN/Al nano-sandwich optical absorbers. Parity-symmetric dark magnetic resonance modes, anti-symmetric bright magnetic resonance modes, and surface lattice modes are established simultaneously in such a meta-surface. By changing the structural parameters, the wavelength of the dark mode can be tuned to overlap with the lattice mode. Fano resonance is introduced by coupling between the dark and lattice modes. Angular-resolved thermal emission experiments showed that the thermal emission induced by Fano resonance exhibited a narrow wavelength …
Beyond the Purcell Effect: Controlling Pure Quantum Dephasing with Spin Noise Metasurfaces
Elmore Family School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Purdue University（普渡大学埃尔莫电气与计算机工程学院）；Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University（普渡大学伯里克纳米技术中心）
The limited radio-frequency spectrum is a fundamental factor in the design of wireless communication systems. The ever increasing number of wireless devices and systems has led to a crowded spectrum and increased the demand for versatile and multi-functional full-duplex wireless apparatuses. Recently, dynamic and intelligent metasurfaces are explored as a prominent technological solution to the current paradigm of spectrum scarcity by opportunistically sharing the spectrum with various users. In general, intelligent metasurfaces are dynamic, ultra-compact, multi-functional and programmable str…
This paper presents space-time varying (STV) metasurfaces for simultaneously controlling the spatial and temporal spectra of electromagnetic waves. These metasurfaces transform incident electromagnetic waves into specified reflected and transmitted waves, with arbitrary temporal and spatial frequencies. They are synthesized in terms of time-domain generalized sheet transition conditions (GSTCs). Moreover, they are characterized using an analytical method and the unstaggered finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique adapted to space-time metasurfaces. STV metasurfaces performing pulse shap…
We present a hybrid device platform for creating an electrically reconfigurable metasurface formed by the integration of plasmonic nanostructures with phase-change material germanium antimony telluride (GST). By changing the phase of GST from amorphous to crystalline through Joule heating, a large range of responses from the metasurface can be achieved. Furthermore, by using the intermediate phases of GST, the metasurface can interact with the incident light in both over-coupling and under-coupling regimes, leading to an inherently broadband response. Through a detailed investigation of the na…
Index modulation (IM) is one of the candidate technologies for the upcoming sixth generation (6G) wireless communications networks. In this paper, we propose a space-time-modulated reconfigurable intelligent metasurface (RI-MTS) that is configured to implement various frequency-domain IM techniques in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) array configuration. Unlike prior works which mostly analyze signal theory of general RI-MTS IM, we present novel electromagnetics-compliant designs of specific IMs such as sub-carrier index modulation (SIM) and MIMO orthogonal frequency-domain modulation I…
Space-time modulated metasurfaces have attracted significant attention due to the additional degree of freedom in manipulating the electromagnetic (EM) waves in both space and time domains. However, the existing techniques have limited wave control capabilities, leading to just a few feasible schemes like regulation of only one specific harmonic. Here, we propose to realize independent manipulations of arbitrarily dual harmonics and their wave behaviors using a space-time-coding (STC) digital metasurface. By employing different STC sequences to the reflection phase of the metasurface, independ…
Software-defined metasurfaces are electromagnetically ultra-thin, artificial components that can provide engineered and externally controllable functionalities. The control over these functionalities is enabled by the metasurface tunability, which is implemented by embedded electronic circuits that modify locally the surface resistance and reactance. Integrating controllers within the metasurface cells, able to intercommunicate and adaptively reconfigure it, thus imparting a desired electromagnetic operation, opens the path towards the creation of an artificially intelligent (AI) fabric where …
Metasurfaces-Enabled Wave Computing for Future Wireless Systems: Opportunities and Challenges
Institute for Communication Systems, University of Surrey（萨里大学通信系统研究所）；Universidad de Oviedo（奥维耶多大学）；National and Kapodistrian University of Athens（雅典国立卡波迪斯特里亚斯大学）；University of Illinois Chicago（伊利诺伊大学芝加哥分校）；Centre for Wireless Innovation, Queen’s University Belfast（贝尔法斯特女王大学无线创新中心）
Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) have recently received significant attention as building blocks for smart radio environments and adaptable wireless channels. By altering the space- and time-varying electromagnetic (EM) properties, the RIS transforms the inherently stochastic nature of the wireless environment into a programmable propagation channel. Conventionally, designing RIS to yield the desired EM response requires trial-and-error by iteratively investigating a large possibility of various geometries and materials through thousands of full-wave EM simulations. In this context, d…
