Traditionally, a black hole is a region of space with huge gravitational field, which absorbs everything hitting it. In history, the black hole was first discussed by Laplace under the Newton mechanics, whose event horizon radius is the same as the Schwarzschild's solution of the Einstein's vacuum field equations. If all those objects having such an event horizon radius but different gravitational fields are called as black holes, then one can simulate certain properties of the black holes using electromagnetic fields and metamaterials due to the similar propagation behaviours of electromagnetic waves in curved space and in inhomogeneous metamaterials. In a recent theoretical work by Narimanov and Kildishev, an optical black hole has been proposed based on metamaterials, in which the theoretical analysis and numerical simulations showed that all electromagnetic waves hitting it are trapped and absorbed. Here we report the first experimental demonstration of such an electromagnetic black hole in the microwave frequencies. The proposed black hole is composed of non-resonant and resonant metamaterial structures, which can trap and absorb electromagnetic waves coming from all directions spirally inwards without any reflections due to the local control of electromagnetic fields and the event horizon corresponding to the device boundary. It is shown that the absorption rate can reach 99% in the microwave frequencies. We expect that the electromagnetic black hole could be used as the thermal emitting source and to harvest the solar light. * tjcui@seu.edu.cnThe concept of black hole was first introduced by Laplace under the Newton mechanics but has been widely used in the general relativity, in which a Schwarzschild black hole possesses an event horizon radius [1]. Everything hitting it including the light cannot escape from the region because the gravity potential is very powerful, and incident lights which are tangential to this circular horizon from outside would form a circle. Similarly, any object whose possible potential is so powerful that it forms an event horizon could be called as a black hole, just like a recent theoretical work reported in Ref. [3]. Actually, the absorption properties of such a black hole are similar to those of so called black body in thermodynamics [4]. All these black holes have a one-way surface, which absorbs all lights/particles into the horizon surface without any reflections, and hence nothing comes out from the black holes.There are two ways to mimic the phenomena of black holes based on electromagnetic waves and metamaterials [2]. For the black hole in general relativity, the presence of matter-energy densities results in the motion of matter propagating in a curved spacetime [1]. Such a behaviour is very similar to the light or electromagnetic-wave propagation in a curved space or in an inhomogeneous metamaterial. Hence one could use the electromagnetic waves and metamaterials to mimic the celestial mechanics by comparing the refractive index to the metric of gravity [5]. Another w...

We propose a method to control electromagnetic (EM) radiations by holographic metasurfaces, including to producing multi-beam scanning in one dimension (1D) and two dimensions (2D) with the change of frequency. The metasurfaces are composed of subwavelength metallic patches on grounded dielectric substrate. We present a combined theory of holography and leaky wave to realize the multi-beam radiations by exciting the surface interference patterns, which are generated by interference between the excitation source and required radiation waves. As the frequency changes, we show that the main lobes of EM radiation beams could accomplish 1D or 2D scans regularly by using the proposed holographic metasurfaces shaped with different interference patterns. This is the first time to realize 2D scans of antennas by changing the frequency. Full-wave simulations and experimental results validate the proposed theory and confirm the corresponding physical phenomena.

The plasmonic waveguide made of uniform corrugated metallic strip can support and guide spoof surface plasmon polaritons (SSPPs) with high confinements. Here, we propose periodically-modulated plasmonic waveguide composed of non-uniform corrugated metallic strip to convert SSPPs to radiating waves, in which the main beam of radiations can steer continuously as the frequency changes. To increase the radiation efficiency of the periodically-modulated plasmonic waveguide at the broadside, an asymmetrical plasmonic waveguide is further presented to reduce the reflections and realize continuous leaky-wave scanning. Both numerical simulations and experimental results show that the radiation efficiency can be improved greatly and the main beam of leaky-wave radiations can steer from the backward quadrant to the forward quadrant, passing through the broadside direction, which generally is difficult to be realized by the common leaky-wave antennas.

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We propose to use backward radiations of leaky waves supported by a holographic metasurface to produce spatial Bessel beams in the microwave frequency regime. The holographic metasurface consists of a grounded dielectric slab and a series of metal patches. By changing the size of metal patches, the surface-impedance distribution of the holographic metasurface can be modulated, and hence the radiation properties of the leaky waves can be designed to realize Bessel beams. Both numerical simulations and experiments verify the features of spatial Bessel beams, which may be useful in imaging applications or wireless power transmissions with the dynamic focal-depth controls.

The dual‐functional and/or multifunctional devices have huge fascinations and prospects to conveniently integrate complex systems with low costs. However, most of such devices are based on anisotropic media or anisotropic structures. Here, a new method is proposed to design planar dual‐functional devices using an isotropic holographic metasurface, in which two different functions are written on the same holographic interference pattern with no mutual coupling. When the metasurface is excited by two orthogonally ported sources, the corresponding dual functions can be controlled by the object waves, which are not affected by each other due to suppression of mutual interference. The proposed metasurface is composed of subwavelength‐scale isotropic metallic patches on a grounded dielectric. In this specific design, double‐beam and double‐polarization radiate devices are realized independently by the orthogonal excitations. Based on the theoretical analysis, scanning radiate beams that are only controlled by frequency with different performances under orthogonal polarizations are demonstrated. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time for actualizing dual‐functional devices using isotropic textures. Full‐wave simulations and experimental results in the microwave frequencies are presented to validate the proposed theory and confirm the corresponding physical phenomena.

We propose a method to design and realize planar Bessel lens using artificial metasurfaces to produce diffraction-free surface waves. The planar Bessel lens is composed of two sublenses: a half Maxwell fisheye lens which can shape the surface cylindrical waves to surface plane waves, and an inhomogeneous flat lens which can convert the surface plane waves into approximate diffraction-free surface waves in a diamond-shaped focusing area. Through the planar Bessel lens, a point source on the metasurface directly radiates the diffraction-free surface waves. In realization, we construct the inhomogeneous metasurfaces by subwavelength metallic patches printed on a grounded dielectric substrate. Simulation and experimental results have good agreements, which jointly show the formation of the diffraction-free surface waves in the microwave band.

We propose a hybrid metasurface to control surface and propagating waves simultaneously. The hybrid metasurface is composed of planar metamaterial to interact with surface waves and holographic metasurface to modulate propagating waves. As an experimental verification, we design and fabricate a special hybrid metasurface in microwave frequency, which contains a surface-wave Luneburg lens and a focusing holographic surface. Numerical and measured results show multi-functional abilities of the hybrid metasurface in controlling the surface and propagating waves simultaneously. It is expected that the proposed methodology will facilitate applications of surface waves in information processing, near-field detection, and wireless communications.