Electrically addressable integrated intelligent terahertz metasurface

Abstract

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) play an essential role in various applications, such as next-generation communication, uncrewed vehicles, and vital sign recognizers. However, in the terahertz (THz) region, the development of RISs is limited because of lacking tunable phase shifters and low-cost sensors. Here, we developed an integrated self-adaptive metasurface (SAM) with THz wave detection and modulation capabilities based on the phase change material. By applying various coding sequences, the metasurface could deflect THz beams over an angle range of 42.8°. We established a software-defined sensing reaction system for intelligent THz wave manipulation. In the system, the SAM self-adaptively adjusted the THz beam deflection angle and stabilized the reflected power in response to the detected signal without human intervention, showing vast potential in eliminating coverage dead zones and other applications in THz communication. Our programmable controlled SAM creates a platform for intelligent electromagnetic information processing in the THz regime.

Independent Manipulations of Transmitting and Receiving Channels by Nonreciprocal Programmable Metasurface

“…Metasurfaces − are composite structures formed by arranging numerous artificially engineered subwavelength unit elements in two-dimensional (2D) space, which have attracted extensive attention and research in various fields such as microwave, , millimeter wave, terahertz, ,− optics, − and acoustics , due to their abilities to manipulate spatial incident waves flexibly. Accordingly, special electromagnetic (EM) phenomena such as perfect refraction , and negative refraction have been observed based on the metasurfaces.…”

Optically controlled dielectric metasurfaces for dynamic dual-mode modulation on terahertz waves

“…Metasurfaces, ultrathin metamaterials constructed by planar microstructures exhibiting tailored electromagnetic responses, provide a powerful platform to manipulate light at the deep-subwavelength scale 1 – 7 Combining passive metasurfaces with different external-stimuli-controlled materials (e.g., semiconductors, 8 – 11 2D materials, 12 – 15 phase-change materials, 16 – 21 PIN diodes, 22 elastic materials, 23 microfluidic materials, 24 mechanical devices, 25 , 26 and liquid crystals 27 – 30 ), many tunable metadevices were successfully constructed, which can dynamically control THz waves by applying different external stimuli 31 . Among these attempts, optically controlled metadevices 32 – 35 have gained intensive attention due to their attractive properties, including ultrafast modulation speed and high modulation pixel resolution.…”

Nonlinear Terahertz Generation: Chiral and Achiral Meta‐Atom Coupling

“…However, on the condition of not modulating the pump lasers, they all lack flexible control over the properties of the generated THz waves, such as their amplitude, phase, wavefront and pump polarization dependence. As for THz manipulators, they have undergone a rapid development in recent years benefitting from the metasurface method, and they includes chiral devices, [ 13–15 ] deflectors, [ 16–18 ] special beam generators, [ 19,20 ] holograms, [ 21,22 ] and active spatial THz modulators, [ 23,24 ] etc. However, such linear devices can only manipulate existing THz waves and their use will also introduce additional insertion loss and bandwidth limitations.…”