Scalable and High-Isolation Dual-Channel Programmable Metasurface With Demountable Meta-Atom

Abstract

Programmable metasurfaces provide emerging platforms for real-time electromagnetic (EM) manipulations, showing enormous potential in various information applications. Achieving multiplexed manipulations of EM parameters such as polarization multiplexing and frequency multiplexing on a shared metasurface aperture is very important to improve the control ability and efficiency. In the usual implementation scheme, however, the multiplexed structures and tunable components are laid on the same surface of dielectric substrate, which tends to cause undesired crosstalk due to the physical connections. Here, a method is proposed to design a unique meta-atom by embedding two varactors into the stacked layers to control orthogonally polarized waves without crosstalk. By arranging the demountable meta-atoms on a baseboard, a scalable and high-isolation dual-channel programmable metasurface is further realized, which can be used to control dual-polarized waves independently, even under the oblique incidence with 60°. As experimental validation, simultaneous and independent transmissions of different videos in space- and polarization-division channels are carried out using the scalable dual-channel programmable metasurface. The approach opens up avenues to develop low-crosstalk multiplexed programmable metasurface, which may promote performance and stability of metasurface-assisted information systems.