Search

This study delves into the innovative landscape of metasurfaces, with a particular focus on their role in achieving EM illusion (EMI) a facet of paramount significance. The control of EM waves assumes a pivotal role in mitigating issues such as signal degradation, interference, and reduced communication range. Furthermore, the engineering of waves serves as a foundational element in achieving invisibility or minimized detectability. This survey unravels the theoretical underpinnings and practical designs of EMI coatings, which have been harnessed to develop functional metasurfaces. EMI, practically achieved through engineered coatings, confers a strategic advantage by either reducing the radar cross-section of objects or creating misleading footprints. In addition to illustrating the outstanding achievements in reconfigurable cloaking, this study culminates in the proposal of a novel approach, suggesting the emergence of EMI without the need for physically coating the device to conceal and thus proposing the concept of a smart EMI environment. This groundbreaking work opens a new way for engineers and researchers to unlock exotic and versatile designs that build on reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS). Crucially the designs enabled by the proposed approach, present a wide array of applications, encompassing camouflaging, deceptive sensing, radar cognition control, and defence security, among others. In essence, this research stands as a beacon guiding the exploration of uncharted territories in wave control through smart EMI environments, with profound implications spanning basic academic research in RIS through advanced security technologies and communication systems.

This paper presents a theoretical and mathematical framework for the design of a conformal reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) that adapts to non-planar geometries, which is a critical advancement for the deployment of RIS on non-planar and irregular surfaces as envisioned in smart radio environments. Previous research focused mainly on the optimization of RISs assuming a predetermined shape, while neglecting the intricate interplay between shape optimization, phase optimization, and mutual coupling effects. Our contribution, the T3DRIS framework, addresses this fundamental problem by integrating the configuration and shape optimization of RISs into a unified model and design framework, thus facilitating the application of RIS technology to a wider spectrum of environmental objects. The mathematical core of T3DRIS is rooted in optimizing the 3D deployment of the unit cells and tuning circuits, aiming at maximizing the communication performance. Through rigorous full-wave simulations and a comprehensive set of numerical analyses, we validate the proposed approach and demonstrate its superior performance and applicability over contemporary designs. This study-the first of its kind-paves the way for a new direction in RIS research, emphasizing the importance of a theoretical and mathematical perspective in tackling the challenges of conformal RISs., Comment: Submitted for journal publication

Ensuring the precision of channel modeling plays a pivotal role in the development of wireless communication systems, and this requirement remains a persistent challenge within the realm of networks supported by Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RIS). Achieving a comprehensive and reliable understanding of channel behavior in RIS-aided networks is an ongoing and complex issue that demands further exploration. In this paper, we empirically validate a recently-proposed impedance-based RIS channel model that accounts for the mutual coupling at the antenna array and precisely models the presence of scattering objects within the environment as a discrete array of loaded dipoles. To this end, we exploit real-life channel measurements collected in an office environment to demonstrate the validity of such a model and its applicability in a practical scenario. Finally, we provide numerical results demonstrating that designing the RIS configuration based upon such model leads to superior performance as compared to reference schemes., Comment: Submitted for conference publication

We devise an end-to-end communication channel model that describes the performance of RIS-assisted MIMO wireless links. The model borrows the impedance (interaction) matrix formalism from the Method of Moments and provides a physics-based communication model. In configurations where the transmit and receive antenna arrays are distant from the RIS beyond a wavelength, a reduced model provides accurate results for arbitrary RIS unit cell geometry. Importantly, the simplified model configures as a cascaded channel transfer matrix whose mathematical structure is compliant with widely accepted, but less accurate, system level RIS models. A numerical validation of the communication model is presented for the design of binary RIS structures with scatterers of canonical geometry. Attained results are consistent with path-loss models: For obstructed line-of-sight between transmitter and receiver, the channel capacity of the (optimised) RIS-assisted link scales as $R^{-2}$, with $R$ RIS-receiver distance at fixed transmitter position. Our results shows that the applicability of communication models based on mutual impedance matrices is not restricted to canonical minimum scattering RIS unit cells., Comment: Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation; 15 pages, 11 figures

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) constitute the key enabler for programmable electromagnetic propagation environments, and are lately being considered as a candidate physical-layer technology for the demanding connectivity, reliability, localization, and sustainability requirements of next generation wireless networks. In this paper, we first present the deployment scenarios for RIS-enabled smart wireless environments that have been recently designed within the ongoing European Union Horizon 2020 RISE-6G project, as well as a network architecture integrating RISs with existing standardized interfaces. We identify various RIS deployment strategies and sketch the core architectural requirements in terms of RIS control and signaling, depending on the RIS hardware architectures and respective capabilities. Furthermore, we introduce and discuss, with the aid of simulations and reflectarray measurements, two novel metrics that emerge in the context of RIS-empowered wireless systems: the RIS bandwidth and area of influence. Their extensive investigation corroborates the need for careful deployment and planning of the RIS technology in future networks., Comment: 43 pages, 21 figures, sumbitted for a journal publication. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2203.13478

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) devices have emerged as an effective way to control the propagation channels for enhancing the end-users' performance. However, RIS optimization involves configuring the radio frequency response of a large number of radiating elements, which is challenging in real-world applications due to high computational complexity. In this paper, a model-free cross-entropy (CE) algorithm is proposed to optimize the binary RIS configuration for improving the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the receiver. One key advantage of the proposed method is that it only requires system performance indicators, e.g., the received SNR, without the need for channel models or channel state information. Both simulations and experiments are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed CE algorithm. This study provides an experimental demonstration of the channel hardening effect in a multi-antenna RIS-assisted wireless system under rich multipath fading., Comment: accepted by IEEE Wireless Communications Letters

The reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is an emerging technology that changes how wireless networks are perceived, therefore its potential benefits and applications are currently under intense research and investigation. In this letter, we focus on electromagnetically consistent models for RISs inheriting from a recently proposed model based on mutually coupled loaded wire dipoles. While existing related research focuses on free-space wireless channels thereby ignoring interactions between RIS and scattering objects present in the propagation environment, we introduce an RIS-aided channel model that is applicable to more realistic scenarios, where the scattering objects are modeled as loaded wire dipoles. By adjusting the parameters of the wire dipoles, the properties of general natural and engineered material objects can be modeled. Based on this model, we introduce a provably convergent and efficient iterative algorithm that jointly optimizes the RIS and transmitter configurations to maximize the system sum-rate. Extensive numerical results show the net performance improvement provided by the proposed method compared with existing optimization algorithms., Comment: Submitted for publication

The widespread adoption of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) in future practical wireless systems is critically dependent on the integration of the RIS into higher-layer protocols beyond the physical (PHY) one, an issue that has received minimal attention in the research literature. In light of this, we consider a classical random access (RA) problem, where uncoordinated users' equipment (UEs) transmit sporadically to an access point (AP). Differently from previous works, we ponder how a RIS can be integrated into the design of new medium access control (MAC) layer protocols to solve such a problem. We consider that the AP is able to control a RIS to change how its reflective elements are configured, namely, the RIS configurations. Thus, the RIS can be opportunistically controlled to favor the transmission of some of the UEs without the need to explicitly perform channel estimation (CHEST). We embrace this observation and propose a RIS-assisted RA protocol comprised of two modules: Channel Oracle and Access. During channel oracle, the UEs learn how the RIS configurations affect their channel conditions. During the access, the UEs tailor their access policies using the channel oracle knowledge. Our proposed RIS-assisted protocol is able to increase the expected throughput by approximately 60% in comparison to the slotted ALOHA (S-ALOHA) protocol., Comment: 14 pages, 7 figures, journal paper

In this work, we present a 2x2 near-field multi-input multiple-output (MIMO) prototype for bit-error-rate (BER) and error vector magnitude (EVM) measurements in a metal enclosure. The near-field MIMO prototype is developed using software-defined-radios (SDRs) for over-the-air transmission of QPSK modulated baseband waveforms. We check the near-field MIMO BER and EVM measurements in three different scenarios in a highly reflecting metal enclosure environment. In the first scenario, the line-of-sight (LOS) communication link is investigated when the mode-stirrer is stationary. In stationary channel conditions near-field MIMO BER and EVM measurements are performed. In the second scenario, BER and EVM measurements are performed in dynamic channel conditions when the mode-stirrer is set to move continuously. In the third scenario, LOS communication near-field MIMO BER and EVM measurements are performed in stationary channel conditions but now in the presence of MIMO interference. In three different scenarios, near-field MIMO BER and EVM measurements are investigated at different Tx USRP gain values and in the presence of varying levels of MIMO interference., Comment: 10 pages

The fifth generating (5G) of wireless networks will be more adaptive and heterogeneous. Reconfigurable intelligent surface technology enables the 5G to work on multistrand waveforms. However, in such a dynamic network, the identification of specific modulation types is of paramount importance. We present a RIS-assisted digital classification method based on artificial intelligence. We train a convolutional neural network to classify digital modulations. The proposed method operates and learns features directly on the received signal without feature extraction. The features learned by the convolutional neural network are presented and analyzed. Furthermore, the robust features of the received signals at a specific SNR range are studied. The accuracy of the proposed classification method is found to be remarkable, particularly for low levels of SNR.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces have been recently investigated for their potentials to offer significant performance improvements in the next generation wireless telecommunication systems (5G and beyond / 6G). Intelligent surfaces are programmed to control the electromagnetic propagation and obtain the desired wavefront by tuning the local reflection phase of unit elements. Predicting the electromagnetic propagation in the RIS-assisted wireless channel accurately is a significant challenge for researchers and becomes crucial for Telecom operators to properly allocate the radio resources. We propose the use of an Eulerian ray-tracing method, the Dynamical Energy Analysis (DEA), as a coverage planning tool capable of account for the EM interaction between reconfigurable intelligent surfaces and the surrounding environment. The main characteristics that make DEA suitable for this purpose are discussed and some preliminary results of the reflective surface integration within the DEA code will be presented.

Metasurfaces can be designed to achieve prescribed functionality. Careful meta-atom design and arrangement achieve homogeneous and inhomogeneous layouts that can enable exceptional capabilities to manipulate incident waves. Inherently, the control of scattering waves is crucial in wireless communications and stealth technologies. Low-profile and light-weight coatings that offer comprehensive manipulation are highly desirable for applications including camouflaging, deceptive sensing, radar cognition control, and defense security. Here, we propose a method that achieves electromagnetic illusion without altering the object. A proof of principle is proposed and practiced for one-dimensional media. The idea is to engineer the environment instead of the object coating. This work paves the way for versatile designs that will improve electromagnetic security applications with the aid of smart environments.

We exploit multi-path fading propagation to improve both the signal-to-interference-plus-noise-ratio and the stability of wireless communications within electromagnetic environments that support rich multipath propagation. Quasi-passive propagation control with multiple binary reconfigurable intelligent surfaces is adopted to control the stationary waves supported by a metallic cavity hosting a software-defined radio link. Results are demonstrated in terms of the error vector magnitude minimization of a quadrature phase-shift modulation scheme under no-line-of-sight conditions. It is found that the magnitude of fluctuation of received symbols is reduced to a stable constellation by increasing the number of individual surfaces, or elements, thus demonstrating channel hardening. By using a second software-defined radio device as a jammer, we demonstrate the ability of the RIS to mitigate the co-channel interference by channel hardening. Results are of particular interest in smart radio environments for mobile network architectures beyond 5G., Comment: 13 Pages, submitted to IEEE Access

In this work, we present reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted optimization of the multiple links in the same indoor environment. Multiple RISs from different operators can co-exists and handle independent robust communication links in the same indoor environment. We investigated the key performance metrics with the help of two simultaneously operating RIS-empowered robust communication links at different center frequencies in the same indoor environment. We found with the help of bit error rate (BER) and error vector magnitude (EVM) measurements that two operators can co-exist in the same RF environment without seriously impacting quality of service of users., Comment: 4 pages, 8 figures

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is an emerging technology that is under investigation for different applications in wireless communications. RISs are often analyzed and optimized by considering simplified electromagnetic reradiation models. In this chapter, we aim to study the impact of realistic reradiation models for RISs as a function of the sub-wavelength inter-distance between nearby elements of the RIS, the quantization levels of the reflection coefficients, the interplay between the amplitude and phase of the reflection coefficients, and the presence of electromagnetic interference. We consider both case studies in which the users may be located in the far-field and near-field regions of an RIS. Our study shows that, due to design constraints, such as the need of using quantized reflection coefficients or the inherent interplay between the phase and the amplitude of the reflection coefficients, an RIS may reradiate power towards unwanted directions that depend on the intended and interfering electromagnetic waves. Therefore, it is in general important to optimize an RIS by considering the entire reradiation pattern by design to maximize the reradiated power towards the desired directions of reradiation while keeping the power reradiated towards other unwanted directions at a low level. Our study shows that a 2-bit digitally controllable RIS with an almost constant reflection amplitude as a function of the applied phase shift, and whose scattering elements have a size and an inter-distance between (1/8)th and (1/4)th of the signal wavelength may be a good tradeoff between performance, implementation complexity and cost. However, the presented results are preliminary and pave the way for further research into the performance of RISs based on accurate and realistic electromagnetic reradiation models., Comment: Invited book chapter - Preprint

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are arrays of passive elements that can control the reflection of the incident electromagnetic waves. While RIS are particularly useful to avoid blockages, the protocol aspects for their implementation have been largely overlooked. In this paper, we devise a random access protocol for a RIS-assisted wireless communication setting. Rather than tailoring RIS reflections to meet the positions of users equipment (UEs), our protocol relies on a finite set of RIS configurations designed to cover the area of interest. The protocol is comprised of a downlink training phase followed by an uplink access phase. During these phases, a base station (BS) controls the RIS to sweep over its configurations. The UEs then receive training signals to measure the channel quality with the different RIS configurations and refine their access policies. Numerical results show that our protocol increases the average number of successful access attempts; however, at the expense of increased access delay due to the realization of a training period. Promising results are further observed in scenarios with a high access load., Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, conference version

This Roadmap takes the reader on a journey through the research in electromagnetic wave propagation control via reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. Meta-surface modelling and design methods are reviewed along with physical realisation techniques. Several wireless applications are discussed, including beam-forming, focusing, imaging, localisation, and sensing, some rooted in novel architectures for future mobile communications networks towards 6G., Comment: 55 pages, 22 figures, submitted to Reviews of Electromagnetics

The reconfigurable intelligent surface is a promising technology for the manipulation and control of wireless electromagnetic signals. In particular, it has the potential to provide significant performance improvements for wireless networks. However, to do so, a proper reconfiguration of the reflection coefficients of unit cells is required, which often leads to complex and expensive devices. To amortize the cost, one may share the system resources among multiple transmitters and receivers. In this paper, we propose an efficient reconfiguration technique providing control over multiple beams independently. Compared to time-consuming optimization techniques, the proposed strategy utilizes an analytical method to configure the surface for multi-beam radiation. This method is easy to implement, effective and efficient since it only requires phase reconfiguration. We analyze the performance for indoor and outdoor scenarios, given the broadcast mode of operation. The aforesaid scenarios encompass some of the most challenging scenarios that wireless networks encounter. We show that our proposed technique provisions sufficient improvements in the observed channel capacity when the receivers are close to the surface in the indoor office environment scenario. Further, we report a considerable increase in the system throughput given the outdoor environment.

Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is a short-range data transmission technology that is used for multimedia file sharing, home automation, and internet-of-things application. In this work, we perform packet error rate (PER) measurement and RF testing of BLE receiver in the harsh electromagnetic environment and in presence of RF interference. We check the PER performance in the line-of-sight (LOS) and non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenario in absence of any interfering signal and in presence of wideband WLAN interference. The BLE PER measurements are conducted in a large reverberation chamber which is a rich scattering environment. Software-defined-radio has been used to create BLE communication link for PER measurement in LOS and NLOS configuration. The BLE PER is measured both in the presence and in absence of WLAN interference. Our measurement results show a higher PER for uncoded BLE PHY modes in NLOS channel condition and in presence of wideband interference. Whereas coded BLE PHY modes i.e. LE500K and LE125K are robust to interference with lower PER measurements., Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures

The design of 6th Generation (6G) wireless networks points towards flexible connect-and-compute technologies capable to support innovative services and use cases. Targeting the 2030 horizon, 6G networks are poised to pave the way for sustainable human-centered smart societies and vertical industries, such that wireless networks will be transformed into a distributed smart connectivity infrastructure, where new terminal types are embedded in the daily environment. In this context, the RISE-6G project aims at investigating innovative solutions that capitalize on the latest advances in the emerging technology of Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs), which offers dynamic and goal-oriented radio wave propagation control, enabling the concept of the wireless environment as a service. The project will focus on: i) the realistic modeling of RIS-assisted signal propagation, ii) the investigation of the fundamental limits of RIS-empowered wireless communications and sensing, and iii) the design of efficient algorithms for orchestrating networking RISs, in order to implement intelligent, sustainable, and dynamically programmable wireless environments enabling diverse services that go well beyond the 5G capabilities. RISE-6G will offer two unprecedented proof-of-concepts for realizing controlled wireless environments in near-future use cases., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, to be presented in 2021 Joint EuCNC & 6G Summit

In this work, we present near-field image transmission and error vector magnitude measurement in a rich scattering environment in a metal enclosure. We check the effect of loading metal enclosure on the performance of SDR based near-field communication link. We focus on the key communication receiver parameters to observe the effect of near-field link in presence of rich-scattering and in presence of loading with RF absorber cones. The near-field performance is measured by transmitting wideband OFDM-modulated packets containing image information. Our finding suggests that the performance of OFDM based wideband near-field communication improves when the metal enclosure is loaded with RF absorbers. Near-field EVM improves when the enclosure is loaded with RF absorber cones. Loading of the metal enclosure has the effect of increased coherence bandwidth. Frequency selectivity was observed in an empty enclosure which suggests coherence bandwidth less than the signal bandwidth.

We present the statistical characterization of a 2x2 Multiple-Input Multiple-Output wireless link operated in a mode-stirred enclosure, with channel state information available only at the receiver (agnostic transmitter). Our wireless channel measurements are conducted in absence of line of sight and varying the inter-element spacing between the two antenna elements in both the transmit and receive array. The mode-stirred cavity is operated: i) at a low number of stirrer positions to create statistical inhomogeneity; ii) at two different loading conditions, empty and with absorbers, in order to mimic a wide range of realistic equipment level enclosures. Our results show that two parallel channels are obtained within the confined space at both the operating conditions. The statistical characterization of the wireless channel is presented in terms of coherence bandwidth, path loss, delay spread and Rician factor, and wideband channel capacity. It is found that the severe multipath fading supported by a highly reflecting environment creates unbalance between the two Multiple-Input Multiple-Output channels, even in presence of substantial losses. Furthermore, the channel capacity has a multi-modal distribution whose average and variance scale monotonically with the number of absorbers. Results are of interest in IoT devices, including wireless chip-to-chip and device-to-device communications, operating in highly reflective environments.

Propagation of rays in 2D and 3D corrugated waveguides is performed in the general framework of stability indicators. The analysis of stability is based on the Lyapunov and Reversibility error. It is found that the error growth follows a power law for regular orbits and an exponential law for chaotic orbits. A relation with the Shannon channel capacity is devised and an approximate scaling law found for the capacity increase with the corrugation depth., Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, submitted to Chaos

Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces (RISs) promise improved, secure and more efficient wireless communications. We propose and demonstrate how to exploit the diversity offered by RISs to generate and select easily differentiable radio maps for use in wireless fingerprinting localization applications. Further, we apply machine learning feature selection methods to prune the large state space of the RIS, thus reducing complexity and enhancing localization accuracy and position acquisition time. We evaluate our proposed approach by generation of radio maps with a novel radio propagation modelling and simulations., Comment: 5 pages, 5 figures

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) are an emerging technology for application to wireless networks. We introduce a physics and electromagnetic (EM) compliant communication model for analyzing and optimizing RIS-assisted wireless systems. The proposed model has four main notable attributes: (i) it is end-to-end, i.e., it is formulated in terms of an equivalent channel that yields a one-to-one mapping between the voltages fed into the ports of a transmitter and the voltages measured at the ports of a receiver; (ii) it is EM-compliant, i.e., it accounts for the generation and propagation of the EM fields; (iii) it is mutual coupling aware, i.e., it accounts for the mutual coupling among the sub-wavelength unit cells of the RIS; and (iv) it is unit cell aware, i.e., it accounts for the intertwinement between the amplitude and phase response of the unit cells of the RIS., Comment: Submitted for journal publication

The next generations of wireless networks will work in frequency bands ranging from sub-6 GHz up to 100 GHz. Radio signal propagation differs here in several critical aspects from the behaviour in the microwave frequencies currently used. With wavelengths in the millimeter range (mmWave), both penetration loss and free-space path loss increase, while specular reflection will dominate over diffraction as an important propagation channel. Thus, current channel model protocols used for the generation of mobile networks and based on statistical parameter distributions obtained from measurements become insufficient due to the lack of deterministic information about the surroundings of the base station and the receiver-devices. These challenges call for new modelling tools for channel modelling which work in the short wavelength/high-frequency limit and incorporate site-specific details -- both indoors and outdoors. Typical high-frequency tools used in this context -- besides purely statistical approaches -- are based on ray-tracing techniques. Ray-tracing can become challenging when multiple reflections dominate. In this context, mesh-based energy flow methods have become popular in recent years. In this study, we compare the two approaches both in terms of accuracy and efficiency and benchmark them against traditional power balance methods., Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures

The Random Coupling Model (RCM) has been successfully applied to predicting the statistics of currents and voltages at ports in complex electromagnetic (EM) enclosures operating in the short wavelength limit. Recent studies have extended the RCM to systems of multi-mode aperture-coupled enclosures. However, as the size (as measured in wavelengths) of a coupling aperture grows, the coupling matrix used in the RCM increases as well, and the computation becomes more complex and time-consuming. A simple Power Balance Model (PWB) can provide fast predictions for the \textit{averaged} power density of waves inside electrically-large systems for a wide range of cavity and coupling scenarios. However, the important interference induced fluctuations of the wavefield retained in the RCM is absent in PWB. Here we aim to combine the best aspects of each model to create a hybrid treatment and study the EM fields in coupled enclosure systems. The proposed hybrid approach provides both mean and fluctuation information of the EM fields without the full computational complexity of coupled-cavity RCM. We compare the hybrid model predictions with experiments on linear cascades of over-moded cavities. We find good agreement over a set of different loss parameters and for different coupling strengths between cavities. The range of validity and applicability of the hybrid method are tested and discussed.

We present the basic prerequisites of electromagnetism in flat spacetime and provide the description of electromagnetism in terms of the Faraday tensor. We generalise electromagnetic theory to a general relativistic setting, introducing the Einstein field equations to describe the propagation of electromagnetic radiation in curved space-time. We investigate gravitational redshift and derive formulae for the combined effect of gravitational redshift and the Doppler shift in curved spacetime., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; v4 typos corrected. In previous versions, the emitted and observed frequencies were mislabelled in the section "Gravitational Redshift."

The effect of a perfectly conducting planar boundary on the average linear momentum (LM), angular (momentum (AM), and power of a time-harmonic statistically isotropic random field is analyzed. These averages are purely imaginary and their magnitude decreases in a damped oscillatory manner with distance from the boundary. At discrete quasi-periodic distances and frequencies, the average LM and AM attain their free-space value. Implications for the optimal placement or tuning of power and field sensors are analyzed. Conservation of the flux of the mean LM and AM with respect to the difference of the average electric and magnetic energies and the radiation stresses via the Maxwell stress dyadic is demonstrated. The second-order spatial derivatives of differential radiation stress can be directly linked to the electromagnetic energy imbalance. Analytical results are supported by Monte Carlo simulation results. As an application, performance based estimates for the working volume of a reverberation chamber are obtained. In the context of multiphysics compatibility, mechanical self-stirred reverberation is proposed as an exploitation of electromagnetic stress., Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures

The spectral behaviour and the real-time operation of Parity-Time (PT PT) symmetric coupled resonators are investigated. A Boundary Integral Equation (BIE) model is developed to study these structures in the frequency domain. The impact of realistic gain/loss material properties on the operation of the PT PT-symmetric coupled resonators is also investigated using the time-domain Transmission-Line Modelling (TLM) method. The BIE method is also used to study the behaviour of an array of PT-microresonator photonic molecules., Comment: Phang S., Vukovic A., Gradoni G., Sewell P.D., Benson T.M., Creagh S.C. (2017) Theory and Numerical Modelling of Parity-Time Symmetric Structures in Photonics: Boundary Integral Equation for Coupled Microresonator Structures. In: Agrawal A., Benson T., De La Rue R., Wurtz G. (eds) Recent Trends in Computational Photonics. Springer Series in Optical Sciences, vol 204. Springer, Cham

A class of structures based on PT PT-symmetric Bragg gratings in the presence of both gain and loss is studied. The basic concepts and properties of parity and time reversal in one-dimensional structures that possess idealised material properties are given. The impact of realistic material properties on the behaviour of these devices is then investigated. Further extension to include material non-linearity is used to study an innovative all-optical memory device., Comment: Recent Trends in Computational Photonics 2017 pp 161-205 Part of the Springer Series in Optical Sciences book series (SSOS, volume 204)

In this paper, it is shown an enhancement of a previous model on the measurement standard uncertainty (MU) of the insertion loss (IL) in a reverberation chamber (RC) including frequency stirring (FS). Differently from the previous model, the enhanced does not require specific conditions on the parameter to be measured. Such an enhancement is applicable for all usable measurement conditions in RCs. Moreover, a useful majorant is also shown; it is obtained under a weak condition on the coefficient of variation (CV) of the parameter to be measured. Results by measurements support the validity of the proposed enhancement and of the majorant., Comment: 8 pages, 20 figures

We describe a novel approach for computing wave correlation functions inside finite spatial domains driven by complex and statistical sources. By exploiting semiclassical approximations, we provide explicit algorithms to calculate the local mean of these correlation functions in terms of the underlying classical dynamics. By defining appropriate ensemble averages, we show that fluctuations about the mean can be characterised in terms of classical correlations. We give in particular an explicit expression relating fluctuations of diagonal contributions to those of the full wave correlation function. The methods have a wide range of applications both in quantum mechanics and for classical wave problems such as in vibro-acoustics and electromagnetism. We apply the methods here to simple quantum systems, so-called quantum maps, which model the behaviour of generic problems on Poincar\'e sections. Although low-dimensional, these models exhibit a chaotic classical limit and share common characteristics with wave propagation in complex structures.

In this paper a practical case of a finite periodic Parity Time chain made of resonant dielectric cylinders is considered. The paper analyzes a more general case where PT symmetry is achieved by modulating both the real and imaginary part of the material refractive index along the resonator chain. The band-structure of the finite periodic PT resonator chains is compared to infinite chains in order to understand the complex interdependence of the Bloch phase and the amount of the gain/loss in the system that causes the PT symmetry to break. The results show that the type of the modulation along the unit cell can significantly affect the position of the threshold point of the PT system. In all cases the lowest threshold is achieved near the end of the Brillouin zone. In the case of finite PT-chains, and for a particular type of modulation, early PT symmetry breaking is observed and shown to be caused by the presence of termination states localized at the edges of the finite chain resulting in localized lasing and dissipative modes at each end of the chain., Comment: 8 Figures and 12 pages

We show that radiation from complex and inherently random but correlated wave sources can be modelled efficiently by using an approach based on the Wigner distribution function. Our method exploits the connection between correlation functions and theWigner function and admits in its simplest approximation a direct representation in terms of the evolution of ray densities in phase space. We show that next leading order corrections to the ray-tracing approximation lead to Airy-function type phase space propagators. By exploiting the exact Wigner function propagator, inherently wave-like effects such as evanescent decay or radiation from more heterogeneous sources as well as diffraction and reflections can be included and analysed. We discuss in particular the role of evanescent waves in the near-field of non-paraxial sources and give explicit expressions for the growth rate of the correlation length as function of the distance from the source. Furthermore, results for the reflection of partially coherent sources from flat mirrors are given. We focus here on electromagnetic sources at microwave frequencies and modelling efforts in the context of electromagnetic compatibility., Comment: 11 pages, 13 figures, under review in Physical Review E

In this paper, a statistical model for the coupling of electromagnetic radiation into enclosures through apertures is presented. The model gives a unified picture bridging deterministic theories of aperture radiation, and statistical models necessary for capturing the properties of irregular shaped enclosures. A Monte Carlo technique based on random matrix theory is used to predict and study the power transmitted through the aperture into the enclosure. Universal behavior of the net power entering the aperture is found. Results are of interest for predicting the coupling of external radiation through openings in irregular enclosures and reverberation chambers., Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures, in press, IEEE Transactions on Electromagnetic Compatibility

The paper reports on the coupling of Parity-Time (PT)-symmetric whispering gallery resonators with realistic material and gain/loss models. Response of the PT system is analyzed for the case of low and high material and gain dispersion, and also for two practical scenarios when the pump frequency is not aligned with the resonant frequency of the desired whispering gallery mode and when there is imbalance in the gain/loss profile. The results show that the presence of dispersion and frequency misalignment causes skewness in frequency bifurcation and significant reduction of the PT breaking point, respectively. Finally, as coupled WGM resonators are inherently lossy structures, we show that unbalancing the gain/loss in resonators is required to compensate for inherent loss of the structure and achieve improved PT properties., Comment: 15 pages, 11 figures