Hao Chi Zhang

Broadband Frequency-Selective Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons on Ultrathin Metallic Structure

We propose an ultrathin metallic structure to produce frequency-selective spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in the microwave and terahertz frequencies. Designed on a thin dielectric substrate, the ultrathin metallic structure is composed of two oppositely oriented single-side corrugated strips, which are coupled to two double-side corrugated strips. The structure is fed by a traditional coplanar waveguide (CPW). To make a smooth conversion between the spatial modes in CPW and SPP modes, two transition sections are also designed. We fabricate and measure the frequency-selective spoof SPP structure in microwave frequencies. The measurement results show that the reflection coefficient is less than -10 dB with the transmission loss around 1.5 dB in the selective frequency band from 7 to 10 GHz, which are in good agreements with numerical simulations. The proposed structure can be used as an SPP filter with good performance of low loss, high transmission, and wide bandwidth in the selective frequency band.

Efficient conversion of surface-plasmon-like modes to spatial radiated modes

We propose a spoof surface plasmon polariton (SPP) emitter which is composed of ultrathin corrugated metallic strips, exhibiting the directional radiation property. The spoof SPP emitter provides a way to quickly convert the SPP mode to a radiated mode. By controlling phase modulations produced by the phase-gradient metasurface on the ultrathin metallic strips, we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that spoof SPP waves are converted into spatial propagating waves with high efficiency, which are further radiated with flexible beam steering. The proposed method sets up a link between SPP waves and radiation waves in a highly controllable way, which would possibly open an avenue in designing new kinds of microwave and optical elements in engineering.

A Hybrid Circuit for Spoof Surface Plasmons and Spatial Waveguide Modes to Reach Controllable Band-Pass Filters.

We propose a hybrid circuit for spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) and spatial waveguide modes to develop new microwave devices. The hybrid circuit includes a spoof SPP waveguide made of two anti-symmetric corrugated metallic strips and a traditional substrate integrated waveguide (SIW). From dispersion relations, we show that the electromagnetic waves only can propagate through the hybrid circuit when the operating frequency is less than the cut-off frequency of the SPP waveguide and greater than the cut-off frequency of SIW, generating efficient band-pass filters. We demonstrate that the pass band is controllable in a large range by designing the geometrical parameters of SPP waveguide and SIW. Full-wave simulations are provided to show the large adjustability of filters, including ultra wideband and narrowband filters. We fabricate a sample of the new hybrid device in the microwave frequencies, and measurement results have excellent agreements to numerical simulations, demonstrating excellent filtering characteristics such as low loss, high efficiency, and good square ratio. The proposed hybrid circuit gives important potential to accelerate the development of plasmonic integrated functional devices and circuits in both microwave and terahertz frequencies.

Capacitive-coupled Series Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons

A novel method to realize stopband within the operating frequency of spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) is presented. The stopband is introduced by a new kind of capacitive-coupled series spoof SPPs. Two conventional H-shaped unit cells are proposed to construct a new unit cell, and every two new unit cells are separated by a gap with certain distance, which is designed to implement capacitive coupling. The original surface impedance matching is disturbed by the capacitive coupling, leading to the stopband during the transmission of SPPs. The proposed method is verified by both numerical simulations and experiments, and the simulated and measured results have good agreements. It is shown that the proposed structure exhibits a stopband in 9–9.5 GHz while the band-pass feature maintains in 5–9 GHz and 9.5–11 GHz. In the passband, the reflection coefficient is less than −10 dB, and the transmission loss is around 3 dB; in the stopband, the reflection coefficient is −2 dB, and the transmission coefficient is less than −30 dB. The compact size, easy fabrication and good band-pass and band-stop features make the proposed structure a promising plasmonic device in SPP communication systems.

Direct Radiations of Surface Plasmon Polariton Waves by Gradient Groove Depth and Flaring Metal Structure

An efficient method to radiate surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) directly using metallic corrugated strip with gradient grooves and flaring structure has been proposed, in which the gradient grooves are used to overcome the big mismatch of wavenumbers between SPP modes and radiated spatial waves while the flaring structure provides impedance matching in wide frequency band. Both numerical simulations and measurement results suggest good direct radiation performance of the proposed structure in a wide frequency band from 5 to 20 GHz, in which the measured radiation patterns show a high gain level of 9.9 dBi on average, and the average efficiency can achieve 92%. The proposed direct radiation structure is of great application values in communication systems and integrated circuits.

Smaller-loss planar SPP transmission line than conventional microstrip in microwave frequencies

Transmission line is a basic component in all passive devices, integrated circuits, and systems. Microstrip is the most popular transmission line in the microwave and millimeter-wave frequencies, and has been widely used in current electronic devices, circuits, and systems. One of the important issues to be solved in such applications is the relatively large transmission loss of microstrip. Here, we propose a method to reduce the loss of microwave transmission line based on the designable wavenumber of spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Using this characteristic, we analyze and experimentally demonstrate the low-loss feature of the SPP transmission line through the perturbation method and S-parameter measurements, respectively. Both simulation and experimental results show that the SPP transmission line has much smaller transmission loss than traditional microstrip with the same size in the microwave frequencies. Hence, the spoof SPP transmission line may make a big step forward in the low-loss circuits and systems.

Ultralow temperature terahertz magnetic thermodynamics of perovskite-like SmFeO3 ceramic.

The terahertz magnetic properties of perovskite-like SmFeO3 ceramic are investigated over a broad temperature range, especially at ultralow temperatures, using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. It is shown that both resonant frequencies of quasi-ferromagnetic and quasi-antiferromagnetic modes have blue shifts with the decreasing temperature due to the enhancement of effective magnetic field. The temperature-dependent magnetic anisotropy constants are further estimated using the resonant frequencies, under the approximation of omitting the contribution of Sm3+ magnetic moments to the effective field. Specially, the effective anisotropy constants in the ca and cb planes at 3 K are 6.63 × 105 erg/g and 8.48 × 105 erg/g, respectively. This thoroughly reveals the terahertz magnetic thermodynamics of orthoferrites and will be beneficial to the application in terahertz magnetism.

Compact Feeding Network for Array Radiations of Spoof Surface Plasmon Polaritons

We propose a splitter feeding network for array radiations of spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs), which are guided by ultrathin corrugated metallic strips. Based on the coupled mode theory, SPP fields along a single waveguide in a certain frequency range can be readily coupled into two adjacent branch waveguides with the same propagation constants. We propose to load U-shaped particles anti-symmetrically at the ends of such two branch waveguides, showing a high integration degree of the feeding network. By controlling linear phase modulations produced by the U-shaped particle chain, we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that the SPP fields based on bound modes can be efficiently radiated to far fields in broadside direction. The proposed method shows that the symmetry of electromagnetic field modes can be exploited to the SPP transmission network, providing potential solutions to compact power dividers and combiners for microwave and optical devices and systems.

An Active Wideband and Wide-Angle Electromagnetic Absorber at Microwave Frequencies

Two-dimensional (2-D) metamaterials (MTMs) can be used to create perfect electromagnetic absorbers. In this letter, a novel active MTM absorber with non-Foster loads is proposed. For obliquely incident plane waves with both transverse-electric (TE) and transverse-magnetic (TM) polarizations, its effective circuit model is analytically demonstrated, accounting the material losses. Based on the circuit model, a stability characterization is introduced to give the design principles for the non-Foster elements to achieve a wideband and wide-angle metamaterial absorber (MA). These active elements are achieved by a two-port non-Foster circuit based on the resonant tunneling diodes. For the purpose of verification, a sample active MA design is presented, exhibiting a high electromagnetic absorption rate for wideband and wide-angle incidence for both TE and TM polarizations at microwave frequencies, as compared to its passive counterpart.

Multi-layer topological transmissions of spoof surface plasmon polaritons.

Spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in microwave frequency provide a high field confinement in subwavelength scale and low-loss and flexible transmissions, which have been widely used in novel transmission waveguides and functional devices. To play more important roles in modern integrated circuits and systems, it is necessary and helpful for the SPP modes to propagate among different layers of devices and chips. Owing to the highly confined property and organized near-field distribution, we show that the spoof SPPs could be easily transmitted from one layer into another layer via metallic holes and arc-shaped transitions. Such designs are suitable for both the ultrathin and flexible single-strip SPP waveguide and double-strip SPP waveguide for active SPP devices. Numerical simulations and experimental results demonstrate the broadband and high-efficiency multi-layer topological transmissions with controllable absorption that is related to the superposition area of corrugated metallic strips. The transmission coefficient of single-strip SPP waveguide is no worse than −0.8 dB within frequency band from 2.67 GHz to 10.2 GHz while the transmission of double-strip SPP waveguide keeps above −1 dB within frequency band from 2.26 GHz to 11.8 GHz. The proposed method will enhance the realizations of highly complicated plasmonic integrated circuits.