2nd-Order Debye relaxation in electromagnetic metasurfaces for wideband dispersion engineering

Xinmin Fu; Yajuan Han; Jiafu Wang; Jie Yang; Yong Sun; Chang Ding; Yuxiang Jia; Jun Wang; Shaobo Qu; Tiejun Cui

doi:10.1038/s41377-025-01813-1

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2nd-Order Debye relaxation in electromagnetic metasurfaces for wideband dispersion engineering

Original Articles

- 2nd-Order Debye relaxation in electromagnetic metasurfaces for wideband dispersion engineering
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 14, Issue 5, Pages: 1433-1445(2025)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Artificially-Structured Functional Materials and Devices, Air Force Engineering University, 710051 Xi'an, China
  2.Suzhou Laboratory, 215000 Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
  3.Institute of Electromagnetic Space, Southeast University, 210096 Nanjing, China
- Author bio：
  
  Jiafu Wang (wangjiafu1981@126.com)
  Jie Yang (yangjie_phy@163.com)
  Tiejun Cui (tjcui@seu.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-025-01813-1
  CLC：
- Received：31 October 2024，
  
  Revised：19 February 2025，
  
  Accepted：05 March 2025，
  
  Published Online：27 March 2025，
  
  Published：31 May 2025
- Accepted：
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Fu, X. M. et al. 2nd-Order Debye relaxation in electromagnetic metasurfaces for wideband dispersion engineering. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 1433-1445 (2025).
DOI：

Fu, X. M. et al. 2nd-Order Debye relaxation in electromagnetic metasurfaces for wideband dispersion engineering. Light: Science & Applications, 14, 1433-1445 (2025). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-025-01813-1.

摘要

Abstract

In dielectric physics

electromagnetic (EM) properties of dielectrics arise from several important polarizatio

n mechanisms that can be described by Debye

Drude or Lorentz models. Metamaterials

as well as their 2D counterparts-metasurfaces

can exhibit bizarre EM parameters such as negative permittivity

whereas polarization mechanisms leading to such have long been discussed in dielectric physics. Drude and Lorentz's models are usually used in metamaterial design

whereas the Debye model is almost absent

though it is so important in dielectric physics. This leaves an unreconciled gap between the dielectric physics and metamaterials. In this paper

we explore Debye relaxations in metasurfaces for the sake of wideband dispersion engineering. By analyzing two fundamental resonance modes of a typical meta-atom

we first show that the reflection phase experiences 1

-order Debye relaxation under the two resonances

although they are typically Lorentzian. More importantly

the two resonances can be tailored to form a 2nd-order Debye relaxation process so as to achieve smooth phase variations in between them

which lays a solid foundation for wideband dispersion engineering. As proof of concept

we propose a quad-elliptical-arc (QEA) structure as the meta-atom

whose dispersion can be customized by tailoring the 2nd-order Debye relaxation. With this meta-atom

we demonstrated two metasurface prototypes that can achieve chromatic and achromatic focusing

respectively

in the entire X band (8.0–12.0 GHz)

showcasing the powerful capacity of wideband dispersion engineering. This work digs out relaxation processes in metamaterials and opens up new territories for metamaterial research

which may find wide applications in wideband devices and systems.

关键词

Keywords

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