Matching Items (4)
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- All Subjects: Metamaterials
- All Subjects: Frequency Selective Surfaces
- Creators: Aberle, James T.
- Creators: Chakraborty, Partha
- Creators: Diaz, Rodolfo E
Description
To detect and resolve sub-wavelength features at optical frequencies, beyond the diffraction limit, requires sensors that interact with the electromagnetic near-field of those features. Most instruments operating in this modality scan a single detector element across the surface under inspection because the scattered signals from a multiplicity of such elements would end up interfering with each other. However, an alternative massively parallelized configuration, consisting of a remotely interrogating array of dipoles, capable of interrogating multiple adjacent areas of the surface at the same time, was proposed in 2002.
In the present work a remotely interrogating slot antenna inside a 60nm silver slab is designed which increases the signal to noise ratio of the original system. The antenna is tuned to resonance at 600nm range by taking advantage of the plasmon resonance properties of the metal’s negative permittivity and judicious shaping of the slot element. Full-physics simulations show the capability of detecting an 8nm particle using red light illumination. The sensitivity to the λ/78 particle is attained by detecting the change induced on the antenna’s far field signature by the proximate particle, a change that is 15dB greater than the scattering signature of the particle by itself.
To verify the capabilities of this technology in a readily accessible experimental environment, a radiofrequency scale model is designed using a meta-material to mimic the optical properties of silver in the 2GHz to 5GHz range. Various approaches to the replication of the metal’s behavior are explored in a trade-off between fidelity to the metal’s natural plasmon response, desired bandwidth of the demonstration, and
ii
manufacturability of the meta-material. The simulation and experimental results successfully verify the capability of the proposed near-field sensor in sub-wavelength detection and imaging not only as a proof of concept for optical frequencies but also as a potential imaging device for radio frequencies.
In the present work a remotely interrogating slot antenna inside a 60nm silver slab is designed which increases the signal to noise ratio of the original system. The antenna is tuned to resonance at 600nm range by taking advantage of the plasmon resonance properties of the metal’s negative permittivity and judicious shaping of the slot element. Full-physics simulations show the capability of detecting an 8nm particle using red light illumination. The sensitivity to the λ/78 particle is attained by detecting the change induced on the antenna’s far field signature by the proximate particle, a change that is 15dB greater than the scattering signature of the particle by itself.
To verify the capabilities of this technology in a readily accessible experimental environment, a radiofrequency scale model is designed using a meta-material to mimic the optical properties of silver in the 2GHz to 5GHz range. Various approaches to the replication of the metal’s behavior are explored in a trade-off between fidelity to the metal’s natural plasmon response, desired bandwidth of the demonstration, and
ii
manufacturability of the meta-material. The simulation and experimental results successfully verify the capability of the proposed near-field sensor in sub-wavelength detection and imaging not only as a proof of concept for optical frequencies but also as a potential imaging device for radio frequencies.
ContributorsMostafavi, Mahkamehossadat (Author) / Diaz, Rodolfo E (Thesis advisor) / Pan, George W (Committee member) / Aberle, James T (Committee member) / Ning, Cun-Zheng (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
The honors thesis presented in this document describes an extension to an electrical engineering capstone project whose scope is to develop the receiver electronics for an RF interrogator. The RF interrogator functions by detecting the change in resonant frequency of (i.e, frequency of maximum backscatter from) a target resulting from an environmental input. The general idea of this honors project was to design three frequency selective surfaces that would act as surrogate backscattering or reflecting targets that each contains a distinct frequency response. Using 3-D electromagnetic simulation software, three surrogate targets exhibiting bandpass frequency responses at distinct frequencies were designed and presented in this thesis.
ContributorsSisk, Ryan Derek (Author) / Aberle, James (Thesis director) / Chakraborty, Partha (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Within the past two decades, metasurfaces, with their unique ability to tailor the wavefront, have attracted scientific attention. Along with many other research areas, RADAR cross-section (RCS)-reduction techniques have also benefited from metasurface technology.
In this dissertation, a novel technique to synthesize the RCS-reduction metasurfaces is presented. This technique unifies the two most widely studied and two well-established modern RCS-reduction methods: checkerboard RCS-reduction andgradient-index RCS-reduction. It also overcomes the limitations associated with these RCS-reduction methods. It synthesizes the RCS-reduction metasurfaces, which can be juxtaposed with almost any existing metasurface, to reduce its RCS. The proposed technique is fundamentally based on scattering cancellation. Finally, an example of the RCS-reduction metasurface has been synthesized and introduced to reduce the RCS of an existing high-gain metasurface ground plane.
After that, various ways of obtaining ultrabroadband RCS-reduction using the same technique are proposed, which overcome the fundamental limitation of the conventional checkerboard metasurfaces, where the reflection phase difference of (180+-37) degrees is required to achieve 10-dB RCS reduction. First, the guideline on how to select Artificial Magnetic Conductors (AMCs) is explained with an example of a blended checkerboard architecture where a 10-dB RCS reduction is observed over 83% of the bandwidth. Further, by modifying the architecture of the blended checkerboard metasurface, the 10-dB RCS reduction bandwidth increased to 91% fractional bandwidth. All the proposed architectures are validated using measured data for fabricated prototypes. Critical steps for designing the ultrabroadband RCS reduction checkerboard surface are summarized.
Finally, a broadband technique to reduce the RCS of complex targets is presented. By using the proposed technique, the problem of reducing the RCS contribution from such multiple-bounces simplifies to identifying and implementing a set of orthogonal functions. Robust guidelines for avoiding grating lobes are provided using array theory. The 90 degree dihedral corner is used to verify the proposed technique. Measurements are reported for a fabricated prototype, where a 70% RCS-reduction bandwidth is observed. To generalize the method, a 45 degree dihedral corner, with a quadruple-bounce mechanism, is considered. Generalized guidelines are summarized and applied to reduce the RCS of complex targets using the proposed method.
In this dissertation, a novel technique to synthesize the RCS-reduction metasurfaces is presented. This technique unifies the two most widely studied and two well-established modern RCS-reduction methods: checkerboard RCS-reduction andgradient-index RCS-reduction. It also overcomes the limitations associated with these RCS-reduction methods. It synthesizes the RCS-reduction metasurfaces, which can be juxtaposed with almost any existing metasurface, to reduce its RCS. The proposed technique is fundamentally based on scattering cancellation. Finally, an example of the RCS-reduction metasurface has been synthesized and introduced to reduce the RCS of an existing high-gain metasurface ground plane.
After that, various ways of obtaining ultrabroadband RCS-reduction using the same technique are proposed, which overcome the fundamental limitation of the conventional checkerboard metasurfaces, where the reflection phase difference of (180+-37) degrees is required to achieve 10-dB RCS reduction. First, the guideline on how to select Artificial Magnetic Conductors (AMCs) is explained with an example of a blended checkerboard architecture where a 10-dB RCS reduction is observed over 83% of the bandwidth. Further, by modifying the architecture of the blended checkerboard metasurface, the 10-dB RCS reduction bandwidth increased to 91% fractional bandwidth. All the proposed architectures are validated using measured data for fabricated prototypes. Critical steps for designing the ultrabroadband RCS reduction checkerboard surface are summarized.
Finally, a broadband technique to reduce the RCS of complex targets is presented. By using the proposed technique, the problem of reducing the RCS contribution from such multiple-bounces simplifies to identifying and implementing a set of orthogonal functions. Robust guidelines for avoiding grating lobes are provided using array theory. The 90 degree dihedral corner is used to verify the proposed technique. Measurements are reported for a fabricated prototype, where a 70% RCS-reduction bandwidth is observed. To generalize the method, a 45 degree dihedral corner, with a quadruple-bounce mechanism, is considered. Generalized guidelines are summarized and applied to reduce the RCS of complex targets using the proposed method.
ContributorsModi, Anuj (Author) / Balanis, Constantine A. (Thesis advisor) / Palais, Joseph C. (Committee member) / Aberle, James T. (Committee member) / Trichopoulos, Georgios C. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
The ability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to image any part of the human body without the effects of harmful radiation such as in CAT and PET scans established MRI as a clinical mainstay for a variety of different ailments and maladies. Short wavelengths accompany the high frequencies present in high-field MRI, and are on the same scale as the human body at a static magnetic field strength of 3 T (128 MHz). As a result of these shorter wavelengths, standing wave effects are produced in the MR bore where the patient is located. These standing waves generate bright and dark spots in the resulting MR image, which correspond to irregular regions of high and low clarity. Coil loading is also an inevitable byproduct of subject positioning inside the bore, which decreases the signal that the region of interest (ROI) receives for the same input power. Several remedies have been proposed in the literature to remedy the standing wave effect, including the placement of high permittivity dielectric pads (HPDPs) near the ROI. Despite the success of HPDPs at smoothing out image brightness, these pads are traditionally bulky and take up a large spatial volume inside the already small MR bore. In recent years, artificial periodic structures known as metamaterials have been designed to exhibit specific electromagnetic effects when placed inside the bore. Although typically thinner than HPDPs, many metamaterials in the literature are rigid and cannot conform to the shape of the patient, and some are still too bulky for practical use in clinical settings. The well-known antenna engineering concept of fractalization, or the introduction of self-similar patterns, may be introduced to the metamaterial to display a specific resonance curve as well as increase the metamaterial’s intrinsic capacitance. Proposed in this paper is a flexible fractal-inspired metamaterial for application in 3 T MR head imaging. To demonstrate the advantages of this flexibility, two different metamaterial configurations are compared to determine which produces a higher localized signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and average signal measured in the image: in the first configuration, the metamaterial is kept rigid underneath a human head phantom to represent metamaterials in the literature (single-sided placement); and in the second, the metamaterial is wrapped around the phantom to utilize its flexibility (double-sided placement). The double-sided metamaterial setup was found to produce an increase in normalized SNR of over 5% increase in five of six chosen ROIs when compared to no metamaterial use and showed a 10.14% increase in the total average signal compared to the single-sided configuration.
ContributorsSokol, Samantha (Author) / Sohn, Sung-Min (Thesis director) / Allee, David (Committee member) / Jones, Anne (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor)
Created2022-05