Abstract

The dispersion curves of spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) are typically asymptotically nonlinear, with only one single intersection point with the dispersion curves of couplers. This means that wave-vector matching can be achieved only at a single frequency, leading to a narrow bandwidth of SSPP couplers. In this letter, we propose to achieve broadband SSPP couplers through dispersion engineering of metamaterials. To this end, we investigated the dispersion properties of a metallic patch array (MPA) that supports the propagation of TE-mode SSPPs at microwave frequencies. After this, we designed a planar metamaterial lens that can provide additional tangential wave-vectors to free space waves. By dispersion engineering, the dispersion curve of the coupled waves overlaps with that of SSPPs on the MPA in a broadband, resulting in high-efficiency broadband coupling of SSPPs. As an example, we demonstrated a broadband SSPP coupler with more than a bandwidth of 1 GHz in the X band. The method can be readily extended to millimeter-wave, terahertz, and other higher frequencies.

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