Electromagnetic Metasurfaces for Wavefront Manipulation and Antenna Beamforming

Metasurfaces are engineered electromagnetic surfaces capable of controlling electromagnetic waves at will. Such surfaces can find applications in emerging 6G wireless communications. In this seminar we will be describing passive and active metasurfaces comprising co-located electric and magnetic dipole moments, forming an electrically dense array of Huygens’ sources or scatterers. Such ‘Huygens’ metasurfaces’ can be made sub-wavelength thin and deprived of spurious diffraction orders, while preserving excellent reflection characteristics. Huygens’ metasurfaces can be used to manipulate the phase, magnitude and polarization of incident electromagnetic waves, including those from nearby elementary antennas, for a variety of applications. A baseline transformation to be discussed is ‘perfect refraction’, e.g. refraction at extreme angles without any reflections. A related transformation to be described is that of ‘perfect anomalous reflection’, meaning the angle of incidence is different than the angle of reflection, with theoretically 100% efficiency. We will also review Huygens’ Metasurfaces for cloaking and antenna beamforming. Examples to be discussed include active cloaking, high aperture efficiency/low-profile antennas, antenna aperture beamforming with simultaneous magnitude and phase control, as well as electronic beamforming and steering.

BIO

George V. Eleftheriades earned his Ph.D. and M.S.E.E. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1993 and 1989 respectively, and a diploma in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece in 1988. Currently he is a Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto Canada where he holds the Velma M. Rogers Graham Chair in Engineering.  Prof. Eleftheriades introduced the concept of using transmission lines to realize negative-index metamaterials in 2002. More recently he made important contributions to  metasurfaces, 2D analogues of metamaterials, and their antenna applications. Professor Eleftheriades received the 2008 IEEE Kiyo Tomiyasu Technical Field Award, the 2015 IEEE AP-S John Kraus Antenna Award and the 2019 IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society’s Distinguished Achievement Award. He is an IEEE Fellow and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Sciences). His research interests include electromagnetic and optical metamaterials, metasurfaces, antennas and components for wireless communications, novel antenna beam-steering techniques, far-field super-resolution imaging, radars, plasmonic and nanoscale optical components, and fundamental electromagnetic theory.

This event is being offered hybrid. Zoom information will be shared via email. Please contact Ann Stals (amriggs) for more information.