1.State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, School of Information Science and Engineering, Southeast University, 210096 Nanjing, China
2.National Mobile Communications Research Laboratory, School of Information Science and Engineering, Southeast University, 210096 Nanjing, China
3.Frontiers Science Center for Mobile Information Communication and Security, Southeast University, 210096 Nanjing, China
4.Purple Mountain Laboratories, 211111 Nanjing, China
5.Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117583, Singapore
Wei Xiang Jiang (wxjiang81@seu.edu.cn)
Zaichen Zhang (zczhang@seu.edu.cn)
Tie Jun Cui (tjcui@seu.edu.cn)
Published:30 June 2022,
Published Online:06 May 2022,
Received:03 February 2022,
Revised:24 April 2022,
Accepted:25 April 2022
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Zhang, X. G. et al. A metasurface-based light-to-microwave transmitter for hybrid wireless communications. Light: Science & Applications, 11, 1139-1148 (2022).
Zhang, X. G. et al. A metasurface-based light-to-microwave transmitter for hybrid wireless communications. Light: Science & Applications, 11, 1139-1148 (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41377-022-00817-5.
Signal conversion plays an important role in many applications such as communication
sensing
and imaging. Realizing signal conversion between optical and microwave frequencies is a crucial step to construct hybrid communication systems that combine both optical and microwave wireless technologies to achieve better features
which are highly desirable in the future wireless communications. However
such a signal conversion process typically requires a complicated relay to perform multiple operations
which will consume additional hardware/time/energy resources. Here
we report a light-to-microwave transmitter based on the time-varying and programmable metasurface integrated with a high-speed photoelectric detection circuit into a hybrid. Such a transmitter can convert a light intensity signal to two microwave binary frequency shift keying signals by using the dispersion characteristics of the metasurface to implement the frequency division multiplexing. To illustrate the metasurface-based transmitter
a hybrid wireless communication system that allows dual-channel data transmissions in a light-to-microwave link is demonstrated
and the experimental results show that two different videos can be transmitted and received simultaneously and independently. Our metasurface-enabled signal conversion solution may enrich the functionalities of metasurfaces
and could also stimulate new information-oriented applications.
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