We present detailed analytical modelling and in-depth investigation of wide-angle reflect-mode metagrating beam splitters. These recently introduced ultrathin devices are capable of implementing intricate diffraction engineering functionalities with only a single meta-atom per macro-period, making them considerably simpler to synthesize than conventional metasurfaces. We extend upon recent work and focus on electrically-polarizable metagratings, comprised of loaded conducting wires in front of a perfect elecric conductor, excited by transverse-electric polarized fields, which are more practical for planar fabrication. The derivation further relates the metagrating performance parameters to the individual meta-atom load, facilitating an efficient semianalytical synthesis scheme to determine the required conductor geometry for achieving optimal beam splitting. Subsequently, we utilize the model to analyze the effects of realistic conductor losses, reactance deviations, and frequency shifts on the device performance, and reveal that metagratings feature preferable working points, in which the sensitivity to these non-idealities is rather low. The analytical relations shed light on the physical origin of this phenomenon, associating it with fundamental interference processes taking place in the device. These results, verified via full-wave simulations of realistic physical structures, yield a set of efficient engineering tools, as well as profound physical intuition, for devising future metagrating devices, with immense potential for microwave, terahertz, and optical beam-manipulation applications.

We present an analytical scheme for the design of realistic metagratings for wide-angle engineered reflection. These recently proposed planar structures can reflect an incident plane wave into a prescribed (generally non-specular) angle with very high efficiencies, using only a single meta-atom per period. Such devices offer a means to overcome the implementation difficulties associated with standard metasurfaces (consisting of closely-packed subwavelength meta-atoms) and the relatively low efficiencies of gradient metasurfaces. In contrast to previous work, in which accurate systematic design was limited to metagratings unrealistically suspended in free space, we derive herein a closed-form formalism allowing realization of printed-circuitboard (PCB) metagrating perfect reflectors, comprised of loaded conducting strips defined on standard metal-backed dielectric substrate. The derivation yields a detailed procedure for the determination of the substrate thickness and conductor geometry required to achieve unitary coupling efficiencies, without requiring even a single full-wave simulation. Our methodology, verified via commercial solvers, ultimately allows one to proceed from a theoretical design to synthesis of a full physical structure, avoiding the time-consuming numerical optimizations typically involved in standard metasurface design.

We theoretically formulate and experimentally demonstrate an analytical formalism for the design of printed circuit board (PCB) metagratings (MGs) exercising individual control over the amplitude and phase of numerous diffracted modes, in both reflection and transmission. Lately, these periodic arrangements of subwavelength polarizable particles (metaatoms) were shown to deflect an incoming plane wave to prescribed angles with very high efficiencies, despite their sparsity with respect to conventional metasurfaces. Nonetheless, most reported MGs were designed based on full-wave optimization of the meta-atoms, with the scarce analytical schemes leading directly to realizable devices were restricted to single-layer reflecting structures, controlling only the partition of power. In this paper, we present an analytical model for plane-wave interaction with a general multilayered multielement MG, composed of an arbitrary number of meta-atoms distributed across an arbitrary number of layers in a given stratified media configuration. For a desired (forward and backward) diffraction pattern, we formulate suitable constraints, identify the required number of degrees of freedom, and correspondingly set them to yield a detailed MG configuration implementing the prescribed functionality; no full-wave optimization is involved. To verify and demonstrate the versatility of this systematic approach, fabrication-ready multilayer PCB MGs for perfect anomalous refraction and non-local focusing are synthesized, fabricated, and experimentally characterized, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, indicating very good correspondence with theoretical predictions. Importantly, the formalism also accounts for realistic conduction losses, critical to obtain reliable efficient designs. This appealing semianalytical methodology is expected to accelerate the development of MGs and extend the relevant range of applications, yielding practical MG designs on demand for arbitrary beam manipulation.

We present the design, fabrication and experimental investigation of a printed circuit board (PCB) metagrating (MG) for perfect anomalous reflection. The design follows our previously developed analytical formalism, resulting in a single-element MG capable of unitary coupling of the incident wave to the specified (first order) Floquet-Bloch (FB) mode while suppressing the specular reflection. We characterize the MG performance experimentally using a bistatic scattering pattern measurement, relying on an original beam-power integration approach for accurate evaluation of the coupling to the various modes across a wide frequency range. The results show that highly-efficient wide-angle anomalous reflection is achieved, as predicted by the theory, with a relatively broadband response. In addition, the MG is found to perform well when illuminated from different angles, acting as a multichannel reflector, and to scatter efficiently also to higher-order FB modes at other frequencies, exhibiting multifunctional capabilities. Importantly, the merits of the introduced beam-integration approach, namely, its improved resilience to measurement inaccuracies or noise effects, and the implicit accommodation of different effective aperture sizes, are emphasized, highly relevant in view of the numerous recent experimental reports on anomalous reflection metasurfaces. Finally, we discuss the source for losses associated with the MG; interestingly, we show that these correlate well with edge diffraction effects, rather than (commonly assumed) power dissipation. These experimental results verify our theoretical synthesis scheme, showing that highly-efficient anomalous reflection is achievable with a realistic fabricated MG, demonstrating the practical applicability and potential mutifunctionality of analytically designed MGs for future wavefront manipulating devices.