A Reflective Metalens With Tunable Focal Length for Millimeter Waves

Year: 2023

Authors: Shameli MA., Magarotto M., Capobianco AD., Schenato L., Santagiustina M., De Ceglia D.

Autors Affiliation: Univ Padua, Dept Informat Engn, I-35131 Padua, Italy; Univ Brescia, Dept Informat Engn, I-25123 Brescia, Italy; Natl Interuniv Consortium Telecommun CNIT, I-43124 Parma, Italy; CNR, Natl Inst Opt, I-25123 Brescia, Italy.

Abstract: A novel architecture of reconfigurable, flat metalens is proposed with an electrically tunable focal length for applications in wireless communication systems working at the frequencies of millimeter waves (i.e., 60 GHz). In this approach, a reflective metalens made of silicon bricks is distributed on a grounded multilayer hosting films of a phase-transition material, namely, vanadium dioxide. The multilayer, acting as a ground plane with a controllable position, provides different phase profiles in the same metalens and, therefore, different focal lengths. Our numerical investigation of thermal and electromagnetic effects shows that the metasurface can reversibly tune the focal length at 27, 31, and 33 mm. In addition, in the operating frequency range between 58 and 62 GHz, the tunability of the metalens remains unaltered. Dynamically controlling the focal point of millimeter waves is highly desirable in wireless communications, especially for 5G and 6G cellular systems applications.

Journal/Review: IEEE Access

Volume: 11      Pages from: 104191  to: 104199

More Information: This work was supported in part by the European Union under the Italian National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) of Next Generation EU, Partnership on ’’Telecommunications of the Future’’ under Grant PE0000001-program ’’RESTART;’’ in part by the University of Padova under Grant SEED-BIRD2020; and in part by Italian Ministry for Education, Universities and Research [Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universita e della Ricerca (MIUR)] under Grant PRIN 2017HP5KH7_003-FIRST.
KeyWords: Millimeter waves; tunable and active metasurfaces; reconfigurable devices; reflective metalens; vanadium dioxide
DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3317511

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