Optical Microwave Metasurface Phased Arrays

The concept, design and validation of optical microwave metasurface phased arrays (OMMPA) are introduced. The proposed OMMPA is composed of a microwave source, an optically-reconfigurable microwave metasurface, and an optical-control system. Different from microwave-photonics antennas that use light as the carrier for low-loss wideband microwave transmission (or light carries microwave), the proposed OMMPA uses light as the control signal for low-cost large-scale microwave tuning (or light controls microwave). Three important design considerations are highlighted with examples, concerning firstly the experimental modeling of tunable components, secondly the design of the optical-controlling system and thirdly the design of metasurfaces. Possible future directions and applications of the proposed OMMPA are also outlined.

I. Introduction

Different from optical phased arrays that controls the light beams at visible and near-visible frequencies [1], optical microwave phased arrays aim to shape the beams at microwave frequencies with the aid of lights, where the latter mainly include the microwave photonics phased array (MPPA) and the optical microwave metasurface phased array (OMMPA). Differently, the MPPA uses light to carry microwave signals for low-loss and wideband microwave transmission [2],[3], whereas the OMMPA uses light to control microwave signals for low-cost and scalable tuning of dynamic microwave apertures [4].