Microwave Experiments Research Articles

Modeling of 2-D Periodic Array of Dielectric Bars with a Low Reflection Angle for a Wind Tunnel High-Power Microwave Experiment

Two-dimensional periodic dielectric bars have potential applications in high-power microwave (HPM) radiation effect experiments performed in wind tunnels. Such a bar is designed to consist of two types of dielectric materials, and two lined-up blocks can be considered as a period along the bar. Under plane excitation, the theoretical period length of the beat wave pattern fits well with the simulation result, which requires modifying the previously presented field-matching method. The phase distribution on the cross-section can be non-uniform when two different guiding modes are excited independently and propagate along different materials. Directional reflection with a low reflection angle can be obtained by reasonably choosing the parameters of the dielectric array. The designed array can decrease the returned-back microwave power toward the microwave source by 6 dB according to the numerical simulation, which included the wind tunnel, the input antenna, the test target, and the reflect array in one model.

Extended One-Way Waveguide States of Large-Area Propagation in Gyromagnetic Photonic Crystals.

We propose extended one-way waveguide states of large-area propagation in a photonic crystal waveguide consisting of two honeycomb gyromagnetic photonic crystals with opposite external magnetic fields. When the width of the waveguide is small enough, the edge states along both boundaries of the waveguide couple with each other strongly and thus create the so-called extended one-way waveguide states. Of note, this structure supports both even and odd extended states, which can be excited under different excitation conditions. For the odd mode, electromagnetic waves have opposite phase distributions along the centerline of the waveguide on both sides, while for the even mode, they have in-phase distributions on both sides. In addition, the odd and the even modes both have the large-area propagating property. Moreover, we have carried out a microwave experiment to verify the simulation results. The measured transmission spectrum shows that the structure has strong non-reciprocity, and the measured electric field distributions of the even and odd modes prove that it supports excellent large-area transmission behaviors. These results provide feasible ideas for achieving topological high-throughput transmission.

Pseudospin-polarized slow light waveguides with large delay-bandwidth product

Delay-bandwidth product (DBP) is a key metric in slow light waveguides, requiring a balance between a large group index and broad bandwidth—two parameters that often involve a trade-off. Here, we propose and demonstrate a slow light waveguide with large DBP using a pseudospin-polarized transverse electromagnetic mode. This waveguide features a folded edge configuration that supports a 200% relative bandwidth from quasistatic limit (zero frequency) and an arbitrarily large group index. Owing to the pseudospin-polarized design, the dense folding would not introduce backscattering and the associated group velocity dispersion (GVD). The resulting gapless linear dispersion and pulse transmission behavior in folded edge waveguide are observed in microwave experiments. Our scheme provides a way to overcome the trade-off between group index and working bandwidth in slow light waveguide, which has potential applications in broadband optical buffering, light-matter interaction enhancement, terahertz radiation source and time domain processing.

A general recipe to observe non-Abelian gauge field in metamaterials

Abstract Recent research on non-Abelian phenomena has cast a new perspective on controlling light. In this work, we provide a simple and general approach to induce non-Abelian gauge field to tremble the light beam trajectory. With in-plane duality symmetry relaxed, our theoretical analysis finds that non-Abelian electric field can be synthesized through a simple real-space rotation of any biaxial material. With orthogonal optical modes excited, their interference leads to an oscillation of the propagating optical beam, which is a direct consequence of the emergence of non-Abelian electric field, influencing light in a manner similar with how electric fields act on charged particles. Our microwave experiments provide unambiguous evidence to the observation of such an optical Zitterbewegung effect where excellent agreement can be found between theorical derivation, numerical simulations and experiments. By extending the idea to optical regime using natural material, we here provide another example to shake the general intuition that light travels in straight lines in homogeneous media.

Enhanced densification and phase transformations during rapid microwave sintering of alumina – yttria-stabilized zirconia ceramics

Alumina – 7.5 wt% yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) ceramic composites were sintered using 24 GHz microwave heating at rates of 10 – 200 °C/min with zero isothermal hold. The starting powders were nanophase η-Al2O3 and YSZ prepared by a laser evaporation method. The final densities of the sintered samples were up to 97.5 % of the theoretical value. The samples exhibited rapid densification until transformation to the α-Al2O3 phase. The temperature of the densification rate peak (and hence of the phase transformation) decreased consistently with increasing microwave electromagnetic field intensity (varied by using different susceptor materials). The densification peak temperature difference between microwave and conventional sintering experiments exceeded 200 °C.

Self-sustained optomechanical state destruction triggered by the Kerr nonlinearity

Cavity optomechanics implements a unique platform where moving objects can be probed by quantum fields, either laser light or microwave signals. With a pump tone driving at a frequency above the cavity resonance, self-sustained oscillations can be triggered at large injected powers. These limit-cycle dynamics are particularly rich, presenting hysteretic behaviors, broad comb signals, and especially large motion amplitudes. All of these features can be exploited for both fundamental quantum research and engineering. Here we present low-temperature microwave experiments performed on a high-Q cavity resonance capacitively coupled to the flexure of a beam resonator. We study the limit-cycle dynamics parameter space as a function of pump parameters (detuning, power). Unexpectedly, we find that in a region of this parameter space the microwave resonance is irremediably destroyed: Only a dramatic power reset can restore the dynamics to its original state. The phenomenon can be understood as an optical instability linked to the Kerr nonlinearity of the cavity. A theory supporting this claim is presented, reproducing almost quantitatively the measurement. This remarkable feature might be further optimized and represents a new resource for quantum microwave circuits. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Two-dimensional valley photonic crystal resonant cavities

Introducing defects in photonic crystals is a common method for manipulating and controlling the propagation of electromagnetic waves. By introducing defects in photonic crystal waveguides, the periodicity of the waveguide structure can be disrupted, local modes can be formed, and resonant cavity functions can be achieved. In this study, we designed two groups of two-dimensional valley photonic crystal waveguides, each of which uses different methods to introduce defects and obtained different resonant cavity structures, and designed a resonant cavity sensor. We conducted a detailed theoretical analysis of the resonant cavity through simulation software. In addition, we fabricated the samples and conducted microwave experiments to demonstrate the accuracy of our theoretical research. Our research provides guidance for the application of photonic crystal devices.

Dielectric metamaterials with effective self-duality and full-polarization omnidirectional brewster effect

Conventional dielectric solid materials, both natural and artificial, lack electromagnetic self-duality and thus require additional coatings to achieve impedance matching with free space. Here, we present a class of dielectric metamaterials that are effectively self-dual and vacuum-like, thereby exhibiting full-polarization omnidirectional impedance matching as an unusual Brewster effect extended across all incident angles and polarizations. With both birefringence and reflection eliminated regardless of wavefront and polarization, such anisotropic metamaterials could establish the electromagnetic equivalence with “stretched free space” in transformation optics, as substantiated through full-wave simulations and microwave experiments. Our findings open a practical pathway for realizing unprecedented polarization-independence and omnidirectional impedance-matching characteristics in pure dielectric solids.

Bonding and antibonding electromagnetic coupling in two interacting toroidal metamolecules

The existence of a toroidal-like eigenmode and its electromagnetic coupling in a system of dielectric particles are studied. A constituent structure (metamolecule) is made of a ring consisting of the radial arrangement of several vertically standing dielectric disks (meta-atoms). In the eigenstate of the given metamolecule, the second-order term related to the exact electric dipole in the multipole decomposition is much greater than the first-order term. This eigenstate is defined as a toroidal-like mode. Then, the characteristics of a system (metamacromolecule) composed of two identical rings are studied in both eigen- and excited states to reveal the peculiarities of the toroidal-like mode coupling. Similar to the well-known electric dipole-dipole and magnetic dipole-dipole interactions, the interaction of toroidal-like modes also appears in symmetric (bonding) and antisymmetric (antibonding) forms. Their excitation in the metamacromolecule depends on the propagation direction and polarization of the irradiating wave. The manifestation of toroidal-like mode coupling is confirmed by checking the extinction cross section and near-field distributions obtained from the full-wave numerical simulation and microwave experiment. A clear understanding of the nature of toroidicity is important from the fundamental physics perspective and practical implementation of metamaterials operated in such exotic states. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Delaying an Electromagnetic Pulse with a Reflective High-Integration Meta-Platform.

Delaying an electromagnetic (EM) wave pulse on a thin screen for a significant time before releasing it is highly desired in many applications, such as optical camouflage, information storage, and wave-matter interaction boosting. However, available approaches to achieve this goal either require thick and complex systems or suffer from low efficiencies and a short delay time. This paper proposes an ultra-thin meta-platform that can significantly delay an EM-wave pulse after reflection. Specifically, our meta-platform consists of three meta-surfaces integrated together, of which two are responsible for efficiently coupling incident EM-wave pulse into surface waves (SWs) and vice versa, and the third one supports SWs exhibiting significantly reduced group velocity. We employ theoretical model analyses, full-wave simulations, and microwave experiments to validate the proposed concept. Our experiments demonstrate a 13 ns delay of an EM pulse centered at 12.975 GHz, enabled by a λ/8-thick and 38-λ-long meta-device with an efficiency of 32% (or 70%) with (or without) material loss taken into account. A larger delay time can be enabled by devices with larger sizes considering that the SWs group velocity of our device can be further reduced via dispersion engineering. These findings establish a new road for delaying an EM-wave pulse with ultra-thin screens, which may lead to many promising applications in integration optics.

General Characterization of Intelligent Metasurfaces with Graph Coupling Network

AbstractIntelligent metasurfaces, as the next‐generation of metasurfaces, have emerged as a versatile artificial electromagnetic (EM) medium capable of adaptively manipulating wave‐matter interactions, especially in the construction of EM space integration and the analogy of wave‐based neural networks. However, current computational landscape for intelligent metasurfaces relies either on time‐consuming full‐wave numerical simulations with excessive computational complexity or on application‐limited physical models that are difficult to consider the coupling effects. Here, a universal graph neural network (GNN) framework is introduced, incorporating the elusive coupling effects inside metasurfaces, enabling rapid and precise characterization with arbitrary‐large size. This framework exhibits exceptional compatibility with physical models, thereby significantly expanding the realm of potential design scenarios. By harnessing the principles of diffraction theory and near‐to‐far transformation algorithms, highly accurate modeling of the scattered fields emanating from metasurfaces is achieved. Through microwave experiments on intelligent metasurfaces, the efficacy of GNN in real‐world scenarios is effectively demonstrated. The utilization of topological strategies to characterize intelligent metasurfaces marks a major leap toward the next‐generation metasurfaces, promising transformative advancements across various applications.

Room Temperature Dynamics of an Optically Addressable Single Spin in Hexagonal Boron Nitride.

Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) hosts pure single-photon emitters that have shown evidence of optically detected electronic spin dynamics. However, the electrical and chemical structures of these optically addressable spins are unknown, and the nature of their spin-optical interactions remains mysterious. Here, we use time-domain optical and microwave experiments to characterize a single emitter in h-BN exhibiting room temperature optically detected magnetic resonance. Using dynamical simulations, we constrain and quantify transition rates in the model, and we design optical control protocols that optimize the signal-to-noise ratio for spin readout. This constitutes a necessary step toward quantum control of spin states in h-BN.

Multiplexing Meta‐Illusion with High Correlation in Both Near‐ and Far‐Field Region

AbstractMicrowave illusion, which can generate the scattering field of objects that don't exist to deceive the detecting devices, is an important and advanced technology in modern science. The conventional illusion device is limited by the narrow working band, non‐flat structure, or single functionality, which is inconvenient for electromagnetic integration. The newly multiplexing metasurfaces provide an effective method to achieve microwave illusion due to their excellent ability in wavefront tailoring. Here, a dual‐band microwave illusion enabled by multiplexing metasurface is proposed, and such a device can simulate two independent scattering fields of real objects at two separate frequencies by recording the near‐ and far‐field information. As a proof of concept, a meta‐illusion, realizing the electromagnetic information of the scaled‐down Sydney Opera House and Pyramid, is designed and fabricated. Microwave experiments are performed to demonstrate the predicted effects. The results show high correlation properties in both near‐ and far‐field characterizations, which is 83%, 80%, and 91%, 80% at two operating frequencies, respectively, verifying the high performance of the meta‐illusion. The findings may motivate the realizations of high‐performance meta‐illusions in other frequency domains and meta‐devices with complex functionalities.

Comparison of microwave and conventional pyrolysis of one-step prepared metal soaps (Li/Na/K/Ca/Mg): Product distribution and heating characteristics

The pyrolysis of metal soaps to produce hydrocarbon rich fuel has been studied extensively. However, the combined effects of microwave radiation and metal ion types on hydrocarbon production have not been addressed. In this study, the microwave and conventional pyrolysis experiments were conducted on five metal soaps (Li soap, Na soap, K soap, Ca soap, Mg soap). The results demonstrated that the metal ions at the carboxyl end of the soap enhanced the polarity of the reactants, leading to a rapid increase in temperature under microwave conditions. With the ion radius increasing, the heating rate increased gradually. Compared with conventional pyrolysis, microwave pyrolysis exhibited a more rapid heating rate, a higher degree of carbon chain fracture, and a greater abundance of small olefin compounds, which promoted aromatization reaction and the release of CO, H2 and CH4. In addition, the composition of the pyrolysis products derived from different metal soaps is affected by the characteristics of metal ions. As the radius of metal ions increased, the oxygen content in the liquid products decreased gradually, while the carbon content increased. The strengthening effect of microwave was further analyzed. With the increase in the radius of metal ions, the strengthening effect of microwaves on olefins formation was gradually weakened, while the inhibiting effect on alkanes formation was gradually enhanced. The structure of carboxylate network is affected by the radius of metal ions, which results in the regular change of the strengthening effect of microwave on olefins and other products. This study is highly significant in guiding the pyrolysis of soapstock waste to prepare olefins and alkanes with high efficiency and low energy consumption.

Microwave analogy of Förster resonance energy transfer and effect of finite antenna length

The near-field interaction between quantum emitters, governed by Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET), plays a pivotal role in nanoscale energy transfer mechanisms. However, FRET measurements in the optical regime are challenging as they require nanoscale control of the position and orientation of the emitters. To overcome these challenges, microwave measurements were proposed for enhanced spatial resolution and precise orientation control. However, unlike in optical systems for which the dipole can be taken to be infinitesimal in size, the finite size of microwave antennas can affect energy transfer measurements, especially at short distances. This highlights the necessity to consider the finite antenna length to obtain accurate results. In this study, we advance the understanding of dipole–dipole energy transfer in the microwave regime by developing an analytical model that explicitly considers finite antennas. Unlike previous works, our model calculates the mutual impedance of finite-length thin-wire dipole antennas without assuming a uniform current distribution. We validate our analytical model through experiments investigating energy transfer between antennas placed adjacent to a perfect electric conductor mirror. This allows us to provide clear guidelines for designing microwave experiments, distinguishing conditions where finite-size effects can be neglected and where they must be taken into account. Our study not only contributes to the fundamental physics of energy transfer but also opens avenues for microwave antenna impedance-based measurements to complement optical FRET experiments and quantitatively explore dipole–dipole energy transfer in a wider range of conditions.

Topological Corner Modes by Composite Wannier States in Glide‐Symmetric Photonic Crystal

AbstractSecond‐order topological insulators can be characterized by their bulk polarization, which is believed to be intrinsically connected to the center of the Wannier function. In this study, the existence of second‐order topological insulators is demonstrated that feature a pair of partially degenerate photonic bands. These arise from the nonsymmorphic glide symmetry in an all‐dielectric photonic crystal. The center of the maximally localized Wannier function (MLWF) is consistently located at the origin but is not equivalent with respect to the sum of constituent polarizations. As a result, topological corner modes can be identified by the distinctly hybridized MLWFs that truncate at the sample boundary. Through full‐wave numerical simulations paired with microwave experiments, the second‐order topology is clearly confirmed and characterized. These topological corner states exhibit notably unique modal symmetries, which are made possible by the inversion of the Wannier bands. These results provide an alternative approach to explore higher‐order topological physics with significant potential for applications in integrated and quantum photonics.

Experimental Investigation of Reflectarray Antennas for High-Power Microwave Applications.

The power capacity of reflectarray antennas (RAs) is investigated through full-wave simulations and high-power microwave (HPM) experiments in this paper. In order to illustrate the results in detail, two RA elements are designed. The simulated power handling capacity of two RA elements are 7.17 MW/m2 and 2.3 GW/m2, respectively. To further study the HPM RA, two RA prototypes operating at 2.8 GHz are constructed with the aperture size of 1 m × 1 m. Simulations and experimental measurements are conducted for the two prototypes. The experimental results demonstrate that, even when subjected to 1 GW of power, the radiation beam of the RA with the second elements can still propagate in the intended direction. This research will establish a basis for advancing the practicality of RAs in HPM applications.

Structures and Energetics of E2H3+ (E = As, Sb, and Bi) Cations.

E2H2 (E = As, Sb, Bi) structures involving multiple bonds have attracted much attention recently. The E2H3+ cations (protonated E2H2) are predicted to be viable with substantial proton affinities (>180 kcal/mol). Herein, the bonding characters and energetics of a number of E2H3+ isomers are explored through CCSD(T) and DFT methods. For the As2H3+ system, the CCSD(T)/cc-pVQZ-PP method predicts that the vinylidene-like structure lies lowest in energy, with the trans and cis isomers higher by 6.7 and 9.3 kcal/mol, respectively. However, for Sb2H3+ and Bi2H3+ systems, the trans isomer is the global minimum, while the energies of the cis and vinylidene-like structures are higher, respectively, by 2.0 and 2.4 kcal/mol for Sb2H3+ and 1.6 and 15.0 kcal/mol for Bi2H3+. Thus, the vinyledene-like structure is the lowest energy for the arsenic system but only a transition state of the bismuth system. With permanent dipole moments, all minima may be observable in microwave experiments. Besides, we have also obtained transition states and planar-cis structures with higher energies. The current results should provide new insights into the various isomers and provide a number of predictions for future experiments.

Photonic antichiral edge states induced by magnetic surface plasmon resonance

Chiral edge states are a hallmark feature of photonic Chern insulators, where waves propagate in opposite directions along two parallel edges of a strip sample. Different from the chiral edge states, at recently discovered counterintuitive antichiral edge states, where waves propagate in the same direction on the two edges, the antichiral edge states are modeled by the modified Haldane model. Here, we theoretically propose, experimentally observe the antichiral edge states induced by magnetic surface plasmon resonance, and realize the antichiral edge states in a gyromagnetic photonic crystal with rectangular lattice. Through microwave experiments and photonic band calculations, the unique properties of this antichiral edge states have been confirmed, including edge dispersion without Dirac points frequencies shift, unidirectional transmission without ancillary cladding, and the operating frequency of the edge states that can be flexibly controlled by the external magnetic field. These results extend the scope of antichiral edge states and supplement the current understanding of antichiral edge states.

Inversion and Evaluation of Oil Thickness Based on a C-Band Microwave Experiment

Inversion and Evaluation of Oil Thickness Based on a C-Band Microwave Experiment