Reflection Of Beam Research Articles

Achieving Photonic Spin Hall Effect, Spin-Selective Absorption, and Beam Deflection with a Vanadium Dioxide Metasurface.

Metasurface-based research with phase-change materials has been a prominent and rapidly developing research field that has drawn considerable attention in recent years. In this paper, we proposed a kind of tunable metasurface based on the simplest metal-insulator-metal structure, which can be realized by the mutual transformation of insulating and metallic states of vanadium dioxide (VO2) and can realize the functional switching of photonic spin Hall effect (PSHE), absorption and beam deflection at the same terahertz frequency. When VO2 is insulating, combined with the geometric phase, the metasurface can realize PSHE. A normal incident linear polarized wave will be split into two spin-polarized reflection beams traveling in two off-normal directions. When VO2 is in the metal state, the designed metasurface can be used as a wave absorber and a deflector, which will completely absorb LCP waves, while the reflected amplitude of RCP waves is 0.828 and deflects. Our design only consists of one layer of artificial structure with two materials and is easy to realize in the experiment compared with the metasurface of a multi-layer structure, which can provide new ideas for the research of tunable multifunctional metasurface.

Triple-channel reflective splitter in terahertz band by second-order Littrow illumination

In this paper, a triple-channel reflective beam splitter in terahertz band with connecting layer under second Bragg incidence is presented. A rigorous coupled-wave analysis is applied to optimize the profile of the grating at 2.52 THz. The optimal parameters of the grating are also verified by using the finite element method to ensure the accuracy of the data. The impact of the incident angle, incident wavelength, duty cycle, and period is analyzed in detail. For the optimized grating working in terahertz band, results for diffraction efficiencies approaching over 30% for transverse-electric polarization in three propagating orders and for transverse-magnetic polarization in the -1st order and -2nd order are derived. Obtaining stable and superior performances, the proposed three-port beam splitter working in the terahertz band is novel and could be an inspiration to design new gratings.

Terahertz Bessel beam generator.

The Bessel beam has broad application prospects in wireless energy transmission and high-speed communications. The traditional Bessel beam generation method has the problems of large volume, low efficiency, and complex manufacturing. To solve the above problems, we present a terahertz Bessel beam generator based on the reflective metasurface, which is composed of a metal pattern, dielectric layer, and bottom metal plate. Under the incidence of right circularly polarized (RCP) wave, the zero-order Bessel beam and zero-order symmetric double Bessel beam are generated. It can be found that the bottom angle of the axicon of the first-order Bessel beam is inversely proportional to the propagation distance of the Bessel beam. Comparing the electric field intensity distribution, phase distribution, and mode purity of the second-order Bessel beam and the second-order vortex beam in different observation planes, it can be seen that the energy of the higher-order Bessel beam is more concentrated and the field distribution is more stable than those of the ordinary vortex beam. The reflective terahertz Bessel beam generator has potential application value in terahertz wireless communications, measurement, radar detection, and imaging.

Integrated Control of Radiations and In‐Band Co‐Polarized Reflections by a Single Programmable Metasurface

AbstractIntegrated control of radiated and reflected electromagnetic (EM) waves is of great importance in information science and engineering, which are mostly achieved by elaborately integrating metasurfaces and antennas. However, most of the radiation‐reflection‐integrated designs remain difficulties to modulate the radiated waves directly without cascading additional radio‐frequency (RF) modules. More importantly, the completely independent control of radiated waves and in‐band co‐polarized reflected waves has rarely been achieved. Herein, direct, dynamic and integrated control of radiated waves and in‐band co‐polarized reflected waves is realized merely by a single programmable metasurface. The radiation‐reflection‐integrated programmable metasurface (RRIPM) can dynamically choose to radiate EM waves only or reflect incident EM waves only, and even dynamically modulate the radiation phases and reflection phases, thus realizing arbitrary radiation functions and in‐band co‐polarized reflection functions without crosstalk. To illustrate the capabilities of RRIPM, an ultra‐compact and broadband RRIPM prototype is designed and fabricated, and this is used for the radiation and reflection of multiple beams with arbitrary energy distributions, low‐gain‐fluctuation reflection‐beam scanning, and low‐side‐lobe‐level broadside radiation.

Calibrating radar wind profiler reflectivity factor using surface disdrometer observations

Abstract. This study uses surface disdrometer reflectivity factor estimates to calibrate the vertical and off-vertical pointing radar beams produced by an ultra high frequency (UHF) band radar wind profiler (RWP) deployed at the US Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program Southern Great Plains (SGP) Central Facility in northern Oklahoma from April 2011 through July 2019. The methodology consists of five steps. First, the recorded Doppler velocity power spectra are adjusted to account for Nyquist velocity aliasing and coherent integration filtering effects. Second, the spectrum moments are calculated. The third step increases the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) due to inflated noise power estimates during convective rain events that cause SNR to be biased low. The fourth step determines the RWP calibration constant for one radar beam (called the “reference” beam) by comparing uncalibrated RWP reflectivity factors at 500 m above the ground to 1 min resolution surface disdrometer reflectivity factors. The last step uses the calibrated reference beam reflectivity factor to calibrate the other radar beams during precipitation. There are two key findings. The RWP sensitivity decreased by approximately 3 to 4 dB yr−1 as the hardware aged. This drift was slow enough that the reference calibration constant can be estimated over 3-month intervals using episodic rain events. The calibrated moments are available on the DOE ARM data archive, and the Python processing code is available on public repositories.

Peculiarities in the Transformation of the Profile of Acoustic Nonlinear Waves Reflected from a Stepped Structure

The article presents the results of studying the reflection of an intense acoustic beam from stepped structures. The case of high Reynolds numbers is considered, when a sawtooth wave profile formed in the incident beam, and an obstacle in the form of a step was located normal to the acoustic axis and behind the discontinuity coordinate. When reflected from the obstacle, the acoustic beam incident on it splits into two parts, between which there is a path difference, specified by the stepped structure itself. The experiment focused on obstacles that create a path difference between the two parts of the beam during reflection, equal to 0, λ/3, λ/2, λ, etc. A broadband membrane hydrophone was used to record the shape of the profile of nonlinear waves of the incident and reflected acoustic beams at an arbitrary spatial point. This made it possible to analyze the evolution of the beam shape with increasing distance from the obstacle, as well as to study its transverse structure. The effect of doubling the characteristic frequency of a signal as an acoustic beam is reflected from a stepped structure is shown, which creates a path difference of λ/2 between the two parts of the reflected beam. It is demonstrated that the dynamics of nonlinear effects in intense beams reflected from stepped structures is similar to the transformation of the profile of acoustic waves generated by dual-frequency pump signals.

Large spatial shifts of a reflected Airy beam on the surface of hyperbolic crystals

The large Goos–Hänchen (GH) and Imbert–Fedorov (IF) shifts of a reflective Airy beam impinging upon the surface of hyperbolic crystals are theoretically investigated. These two typical models, incident by the linearly polarized Airy beam, are discussed, where the optical axis is parallel or vertical to the incident plane, respectively. Compared with the Gaussian or vortex beam, the GH and IF shifts caused by Airy beams are increased by at least two orders of magnitude in or near the reststrahlen bands of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), especially in the vicinity of epsilon-near-zero. The conditions improving the GH and IF shifts are deeply examined, which are determined by the permittivity and thickness of hBN and the incident frequency, respectively. For the arbitrary orientation of the optical axis, it has been demonstrated that the left-circularly polarized Airy beam has to be used to generate the large spatial shifts at a certain incident angle and frequency. These results may provide a feasible way to obtain great spatial shifts and be applied in infrared optical detection.

Polarization-dependent reconfigurable light field manipulation by liquid-immersion metasurface.

Traditional grating lenses can accumulate phase for adjusting wavefronts, and plasmonic resonances can be excited in metasurfaces with discrete structures for optical field modulation. Diffractive and plasma optics have been developing in parallel, with easy processing, small size, and dynamic control advantages. Due to theoretical hybridization, structural design can combine advantages and show great potential value. Changing the shape and size of the flat metasurface can easily produce light field reflections, but changes in height are rarely cross-explored. We propose a graded metasurface with a single-structure periodic arrangement, which can mix the effects of plasmonic resonance and grating diffraction. As for solvents of different polarities, strong polarization-dependent beam reflections are produced, enabling versatile beam convergence and deflection. Dielectric/metal nanostructures with selective hydrophobic/hydrophilic properties can be arranged by the structural material specification to selectively settle the location of the solution in a liquid environment. Furthermore, the wetted metasurface is actively triggered to achieve spectral control and initiate polarization-dependent beam steering in the broadband visible light region. Actively reconfigurable polarization-dependent beam steering has potential applications in tunable optical displays, directional emission, beam manipulation and processing, and sensing technologies.

Broadband electrically controlled reflective metasurface for reconfigurable circularly polarized wavefront manipulation.

A broadband, electrically controlled, reconfigurable, circularly polarized reflective metasurface is presented. The chirality of the metasurface structure is changed by switching active elements, which benefits from the tunable current distributions generated by the elaborately designed structure under x-polarized and y-polarized waves. Notably, the proposed metasurface unit cell maintains a good circular-polarization efficiency in a broadband range of 6.82-9.96 GHz (fractional bandwidth of 37%) with a phase difference of π between the two states. As a demonstration, a reconfigurable circularly polarized metasurface containing 8 × 8 elements was simulated and measured. The results verify that the proposed metasurface can flexibly control circularly polarized waves in a broadband, realizing beam splitting, mirror reflection, and other beam manipulations from 7.4 GHz to 9.9 GHz (fractional bandwidth of 28.9%) by simply adjusting the loaded active elements. The proposed reconfigurable metasurface may offer a promising approach to electromagnetic wave manipulation or communication systems.

Remote Operation of an Open-Path, Laser-Based Instrument for Atmospheric CO2 and CH4 Monitoring

The technical specifications and the evaluation of the remote operation of the open-path, tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopic (TDLAS) instrument are presented. The instrument is equipped with two low optical power diode lasers in the near-infrared spectral range for the atmospheric detection of carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapors (CO2, CH4, and H2O). Additionally, the instrument eliminates the requirement of retroreflectors since it detects the back reflection of the laser beam from any topographic target. The instrument was operated remotely by measuring background concentrations of CO2 and CH4 in the atmosphere from 24 November 2022 to 4 January 2023. The accuracy of CO2 and CH4 measurement retrievals on a 200 m laser path was estimated at 20 ppm (4.8%) and 60 ppb (3.1%), respectively. The CH4 accuracy is comparable, but the CO2 accuracy is noticeably lower than the accuracy achieved in local operation. The accuracy issues raised are studied and discussed in terms of the laser driver’s cooling performance.

Homogeneity and heterogeneity in near-infrared FTIR spectra of Ryugu returned samples

Surface and subsurface materials of C-type near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu were collected and successfully returned to the Earth in the Hayabusa2 mission. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) has been conducted to characterize these returned samples as one of the initial descriptions in a non-destructive manner under a purified nitrogen condition without terrestrial contamination. We selected the individual grains and aggregate samples that were not severely influenced by the reflection of incident beam at the sapphire dish and analyzed their reflectance spectra using the primary component analysis (PCA). The result indicates that Ryugu returned samples are highly homogeneous with only a little heterogeneity. The average spectrum of the main PCA group is represented by four absorption bands at 2.7, 3.05, 3.4, and 3.95 μm. The spectral feature is consistent with that obtained from bulk FTIR measurements, indicating potential presence of hydroxyl, organics, and carbonates. Rarely observed types of grains with unique spectra are categorized into three groups: significantly high reflectance, carbonates, and hydroxyl compounds with broad OH absorption.Graphical

Terahertz Silicon Metagratings: High‐Efficiency Dispersive Beam Manipulation above Diffraction Cone

AbstractOptical wavefront engineering is essential for the development of next‐generation integrated photonic devices. It is used for reflecting terahertz waves in a predesigned nonspecular direction with near‐unitary efficiency, which is a longstanding challenge for high‐performance functional devices. Recently, metagratings have offered an efficient solution for beam steering at large angles without the need for a discretization phase or impedance profile. Here, all‐dielectric metagratings fabricated using a silicon cuboid complex lattice are proposed and demonstrated experimentally to achieve anomalous terahertz beam reflections above the diffraction cone with unitary diffraction efficiency. For the bipartite metagrating system, a single dispersive scatterer per unit is effective for achieving broadband beam steering because of Brillouin zone folding, and another perturbative synergetic scatterer is introduced to slightly tailor the array coupling and improve the performance. High‐efficiency beam steering, including both retroreflection under oblique incidence and one‐way diffraction under normal incidence, can be achieved by breaking structural symmetry and coherently suppressing unnecessary radiation channels. Moreover, silicon metagratings with spatially dispersive response features show perfect anomalous reflection operation in the broadband region, which is promising for leveraging terahertz spatially separated devices.

A coupled ray-tracing based CFD and cellular automaton model for predicting molten pool formation and microstructure evolution in narrow gap laser welding

Laser beam reflection plays a significant role in the temperature development history during various laser material processes. Different from other processes where laser beam reflection main happens inside the keyhole, in narrow gap laser welding (NGLW), the laser beam would interact with the sidewalls multiple times before existing the narrow groove, which would have a great impact on the defect formation as well as the grain structure development. However, the underlying mechanism of this process remains unknown in multi-pass NGLW. In this study, an integrated ray-tracing based CFD and cellular automaton (CA) modelling framework is established to investigate the impact of laser beam reflection on molten pool formation and microstructure evolution in multi-pass NGLW. From the CFD simulation, it is found that the overall laser beam absorption of NGLW is greater than laser metal deposition (LMD) while smaller than laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) process. Besides, the overall absorptivity in NGLW is increased 28% when considering the ray reflection during the first welding pass. The absorptivity would increase and then stabilise through the multi-pass welding process, which is attributed to the change in incident angle and number of reflections. Additionally, it is found that the undercut defect is more likely to occur with ray reflection due to the excessive temperature rise on the sidewalls, while lack of fusion is observed in the case without ray reflection. By incorporating the thermal history of each welding pass with CA, the impact of laser beam reflection on grain structure development is evaluated. Columnar grains would govern the microstructure evolution in the case with ray reflection, which grow epitaxially from the fusion line to the molten pool centre. Grain coarsening would occur around the lack of fusion region in the case without ray reflection. Moreover, the analysis on grain size distribution is conducted and a greater maximum grain size is obtained in the case without ray reflection as a result of lower cooling rate caused by lack of fusion. However, a higher grain size increase is obtained in the case with ray reflection during multiple welding passes, and larger grains are expected to form if more welding passes are to be conducted. The simulated molten pool morphology and grain structure are compared with the experimental observation, and a good agreement is achieved.

Polymorph and Morphology Formation of Cerium Carbonate from Reactive Crystallization

Semibatch reactive crystallization and hydrothermal reaction of cerium carbonate were investigated with cerium chloride and sodium carbonate as the reactants in order to determine the key factor and the foremost step that affect the polymorph and morphology. Pure Ce2(CO3)3·8H2O, pure CeCO3OH, and the concomitant polymorphism of the two were obtained at different temperatures and the concentrations of cerium chloride solution. The relative stability of Ce2(CO3)3·8H2O and CeCO3OH, the solubilities of the two forms in low concentration of sodium chloride solution and the dehydration and decomposition processes with heating were first discussed in this study. Rodlike forms, short rodlike forms, platelike aggregations or blocks, regular intercrescence, and regular spindle morphology of cerium carbonate crystals were obtained from semibatch and hydrothermal reactive crystallization, respectively. Raman spectroscopy and a focused beam reflection measuring (FBRM) instrument were applied in situ to monitor the reaction, nucleation, and growth processes. It was found that CeCO3OH is more stable than Ce2(CO3)3·8H2O. The thermodynamics driving force of supersaturation of cerium carbonate generated from the reaction between cerium chloride and sodium carbonate at different temperatures contributed mainly to the nucleation, which, in turn, controls the crystal phase formation and the morphology of cerium carbonate. Finally, the routes for cerium chloride and sodium carbonate to transform into cerium oxide were summarized.

Investigating mechanisms of laser pulse-induced reflectivity modulations in photoacoustic remote sensing with a 10 million frames-per-second camera

Photoacoustic remote sensing has been recently developed as an all-optical imaging modality capable of imaging a variety of endogenous contrast agents label-free. Initially predicted laser pulse-induced refractive index perturbation-based interrogation beam reflectivity modulations have been found to be orders of magnitude smaller than those typically observed experimentally. In this report we utilize a 10 million frames-per-second camera to further investigate these predicted reflectivity modulations, while also exploring other potential mechanisms of laser pulse-induced reflectivity modulations. Laser-induced motion is demonstrated both laterally for gold wires suspended and submerged in air and water, respectively, and carbon fibers submerged in water, and axial motion is observed in gold wires submerged in a depth gradient of intralipid solution. This laser-induced sample motion is anticipated to cause reflectivity modulations local to the interrogation beam profile in microscopy set-ups. Non-motion-based maximum intensity modulations of 3% are also observed in gold wires submerged in water, indicating the presence of the originally predicted reflectivity modulations. Overall, these observations are important as they provide a widefield view of laser-pulse interactions unavailable in previous point scanning-based photoacoustic remote sensing microscopy configurations, where observed mechanisms occur on time-scales orders of magnitude faster than equivalent field of view point scanning capabilities.

Numerical and experimental investigations of a microwave interferometer for the negative ion source SPIDER

The electron density close to the extraction grids and the co-extracted electrons represent a crucial issue when operating negative ion sources for fusion reactors. An excessive electron density in the plasma expansion region can indeed inhibit the negative ion production and introduce potentially harmful electrons in the accelerator. Among the set of plasma and beam diagnostics proposed for SPIDER upgrade, a heterodyne microwave (mw) interferometer at 100 GHz is currently being explored as a possibility to measure electron density in the plasma extraction region. The major issue in applying this technique in SPIDER is the poor accessibility of the probing microwave beam through the source metal walls and the long distance of 4 m at which mw modules should be located outside the vacuum vessel. Numerical investigations in a full-scale geometry showed that the power transmitted through the plasma source apertures was above the signal-to-noise ratio threshold for the microwave module sensitivity. An experimental proof-of-principle of the setup to assess the possibility of signal phase detection was then performed. The microwave system was tested on an experimental full-scale test-bench mimicking SPIDER viewports accessibility constraints, including the presence of a SPIDER-like plasma. The outcome of first tests revealed that, despite the geometrical constraints, in certain conditions, the phase detection, and, therefore, electron density measurements are possible. The main issue arises from decoupling the one-pass signal from spurious multipaths generated by mw beam reflections, requiring signal cross correlation analysis. These preliminary tests demonstrate that despite the 4 m distance between the mw modules and the presence of metal walls, plasma density measurement is possible when the 80 mm diameter ports are available. In this contribution, we discuss the numerical simulations, the preliminary experimental tests and suggest design upgrades of the interferometric setup to enhance signal transmission.

Active IRS-Assisted Integrated Sensing and Communication in C-RAN

This letter investigates an active intelligent reflecting surface (IRS)-aided integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system in the scenario of cloud radio access network (C-RAN). In the system, the active IRS is deployed to amplify and reflect the joint communication and sensing signals from the remote radio heads (RRHs). Our goal is to form the desired reflective beam pattern from the active IRS towards the sensing targets located in non-line-of-sight (NLoS) areas for the RRHs, while satisfying the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) requirement for the communication users and the capacity limit for the fronthaul links between the baseband unit (BBU) pool and RRHs. Specifically, we propose an efficient joint design for the fronthaul compression and the beamforming of the RRHs and the active IRS. Via numerical simulations, the effectiveness of the proposed design is verified.

Design and Experiments of a Beam-Steerable Wideband Reflectarray Antenna for High-Power Microwave Applications

A beam-steerable wideband reflectarray antenna (WRA) is presented in this communication. The WRA element operated at 3.3–5.5 GHz (relative bandwidth 50%) exhibits a continuous 360° phase coverage, and its power handling capacity (PHC) is estimated to exceed 4.5 GW/m2 in simulation, indicating its potential in high-power microwave (HPM) applications. Moreover, to verify the wideband performance of the WRA, a prototype was successfully designed, simulated, fabricated, and measured in the S- and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$C$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -bands. The WRA prototype is composed of an ultrawideband helical feed antenna, <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$25\times25$ </tex-math></inline-formula> antenna elements, and a dielectric plate as a radome. The results show that in the frequency band of 3.3–5.5 GHz, the WRA can achieve an arbitrary direction of reflection beam within ±60° (120° conical region). Additionally, at the center frequency of 4.4 GHz, its sidelobe level is consistently below −15 dB, while the maximum gain loss is 3.3 dB during beam steering, and the maximum aperture efficiency reaches 67.89% in the direction of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\theta _{0}=0$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ° and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\varphi _{0}=0$ </tex-math></inline-formula> °.

Coverage Enhancement in Millimeter-Wave Cellular Networks via Distributed IRSs

Intelligent reflecting surface (IRS) is a promising technology to provide line-of-sight (LOS) links for blocked paths, especially in millimeter wave (mmWave) cellular networks. However, in practice, it is difficult for IRSs to arbitrarily adjust the reflection angle to align served users. A promising solution is to deploy distributed IRSs to increase the probability that the users lie in the reflection directions. This paper develops a stochastic geometry-based approach for studying the coverage enhancement in mmWave cellular networks via distributed IRSs. Specifically, the locations of IRSs are modeled through a binomial point process centered at a base station, and the reflection beam of each IRS is pointed to a certain direction. Considering the difference between LOS and non-LOS mmWave transmissions, we propose a received signal strength indicator based association strategy to guarantee that the users receive the strongest average power. After characterizing the association probabilities and distance distributions, we derive the coverage probability for an arbitrary user and perform simplifications for enhancing the computation efficiency. The results are validated by simulations and reveal that distributed deployment of IRSs can achieve a better coverage probability than that of the centralized deployment, which validates the feasibility of enhancing system performance through distributed IRSs.

Fast and Arbitrary Beam Pattern Design for RIS-Assisted Terahertz Wireless Communication

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) can assist terahertz wireless communication to restore the fragile line-of-sight links and facilitate beam steering. Arbitrary reflection beam patterns are desired to meet diverse requirements in different applications. This paper establishes relationship between RIS beam pattern design with two-dimensional finite impulse response filter design and proposes a fast non-iterative algorithm to solve the problem. Simulations show that the proposed method outperforms baseline method. Hence, it represents a promising solution for fast and arbitrary beam pattern design in RIS-assisted terahertz wireless communication.