Reflective anomalous beam splitter (RABS) metasurface for millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) frequency

Abstract

Metasurfaces have gained a considerable amount of interest in the past decade for their capabilities to manipulate electromagnetic (EM) waves in different manners. They have offered multiple functionalities in terms of wave control depending on the given application. In terms of wave control, particularly EM beam splitting, it can be challenging compared to the given literature review, to achieve a wide number of beam-splitting reflections and coverage for multiple incident angles simultaneously. In this paper, we focus on the design of a metasurface based on the methodology of high periodicity supercell design (5.76λ) and impedance modulation to achieve a various number of beam-splitting angles, while maintaining the same coverage at multiple incident angles for millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) frequencies. Following the generalized phase law of reflection alongside proper optimization of the surface impedance, the proposed reflective anomalous beam splitter (RABS) metasurface is designed to be polarization independent, and high reflection efficiency is achieved with a wave beam split into 11 different directions while operating for multiple incident angles simultaneously, making it a promising candidate to overcome challenges for various mm-Wave communication applications, especially in expanding 5G coverage in non-line of sight regions at a 28 GHz frequency band. The performance of the RABS metasurface is evaluated using both full-wave simulations and experimental measurements, which demonstrate its effectiveness in achieving 11 efficient reflective anomalous beams with a reflection efficiency of up to 96.65% and 97.36% in TE and TM modes at 28 GHz.