Mechanical and Self-Deformable Spatial Modulation Beam Steering and Splitting Metasurface

Abstract

Metasurfaces or artificial electromagnetic structures, offer feasible options to manipulate electromagnetic waves with compact and planar form factors. Tuneable metasurfaces can steer and split the electromagnetic wavefront, and are strongly desirable for many engineering and science applications. However, realizing tuneable metasurfaces that can achieve integrated diversified functionalities is somewhat challenging. This work proposes a simple spatial modulation mechanism to realize beam steering and splitting between left-handed and right-handed circularly polarized waves. A prototype proposed structure using 4D printing is fabricated to provide mechanical and self-deformation flexibility with different operating modes. Underlying concepts are confirmed and verified by theoretical predictions, numerical simulations, and experiments. © 2021 The Authors. Advanced Optical Materials published by Wiley-VCH GmbH