Generalized Maxwell Fish-Eye Lens as a Beam Splitter: A Case Study in Realizing All-Dielectric Devices From Transformation Electromagnetics

Abstract

A 2-D generalized Maxwell fish-eye lens has been fabricated with all-dielectric polymer/ceramic composite materials and evaluated numerically and experimentally. The graded refractive index profile of the lens was discretized into a concentric-ring structure and functioned as a two-way beam splitter. Epoxy composites, with a broad dielectric constant range that can be precisely controlled, were used to cast the lens using a low-cost manufacturing method that can readily accommodate different geometries. The lens was tested with a nearfield microwave imaging system to demonstrate its capability of controlling waves at an operating frequency of 18 GHz. The measured results had some differences from the expected behavior, which are considered in detail and provided some insights into the practical manufacturing and measurement constraints for graded dielectric composites. Possible routes to increase the number of output beams are discussed.

Alumina 3-D Printed Wide-Angle Partial Maxwell Fish-Eye Lens Antenna

“…IDE-ANGLE lenses can be found in a large variety of applications, e.g. as an antenna for radar systems [1], space satellite communications [2]- [3], reference radar targets and frequency-coded retroreflectors [4]- [6], power splitters [7], or invisible cloaking [8]. Typical representations of wide-angle lenses are Luneburg lenses [9], Gutman lenses [10]- [11], Maxwell Fish-Eye lenses (MFE) [12]- [16], Eaton lenses [17]- [18], or geodesic lenses [19].…”

Elliptical generalized Maxwell fish-eye lens using conformal mapping

“…Two examples of power splitting with GMFE are shown in figures 1(e) and (f). An example of the GMFE has been recently fabricated using a polymer/ceramic composite for beam splitting [62].…”

Photonic crystal waveguide intersection design based on Maxwell’s fish-eye lens

“…1(b). The generalized MFE lens formula can be used for different applications [17,18], however, the refractive index profile given in Eq. ( 1) is appropriate for our design.…”