Antennae capture and emit electromagnetic waves, transmitting data to our radios, televisions, mobile phones, and beyond. Academics at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis envision a future where antennas revolutionize even more uses.

Their newly developed metasurfaces, ultra-slim materials constituted of minute nanoantennas that can both enhance and regulate light with great precision, have the potential to substitute traditional refractive surfaces, ranging from eyeglasses to smartphone lenses, and enhance dynamic applications such as augmented reality/virtual reality and LiDAR (light detection and ranging).

Although metasurfaces can manipulate light with extraordinary precision and effectiveness, facilitating powerful optical instruments, they often experience a significant drawback: Metasurfaces are extremely responsive to the polarization of light, implying they can solely engage with light that is oriented and proceeding in a specific direction. This characteristic is beneficial in polarized sunglasses that eliminate glare and in various communication and imaging technologies, but necessitating a particular polarization considerably limits the versatility and applicability of metasurfaces.

To address this challenge, a research team spearheaded by Mark Lawrence, an assistant professor within the Preston M. Green Department of Electrical & Systems Engineering, showcased polarization-independent and highly resonant metasurfaces that uphold superior precision and effectiveness. The findings were published online on January 28 in Nano Letters.

Discover more on the McKelvey School of Engineering site.

The article Collection of tiny antennas can amplify, control light was first published on The Source.