Reza Dehbashi

Bio: Reza Dehbashi is an academic researcher from University of Queensland. The author has contributed to research in topics: Metamaterial & Transformation optics. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 10 publications receiving 21 citations.

Size Reduction of Electromagnetic Devices Using Double Near-Zero Materials

Abstract: The phase pattern tailoring and finite/nonzero wave impedance properties of double-near-zero materials, which have both the permittivity and permeability close to zero, are utilized to reduce the size of certain electromagnetic devices. As a proof of concept, it is applied to internal and external cloaks and field concentrators. The proposed technique enables reducing the size of the investigated devices by 50% by changing their structure from a full cylinder to half cylinder. The half-sized devices can still perform the functions of their full-size counterparts. To understand the phenomenon and validate the numerical results, the method is proven analytically for the internal cloak. The same analysis can also be applied for the external cloak and concentrator. For the included analysis, the transverse electric Z-polarization is used. For the transverse magnetic Z-polarization, the duality principal can be applied.

Uniqueness theorem and uniqueness of inverse problems for lossy anisotropic inhomogeneous structures with diagonal material tensors

Abstract: The uniqueness theorem for lossy anisotropic inhomogeneous structures with diagonal material tensors is proven. For these materials, we prove that all the elements of the constitutive tensors must be lossy. Materials like cloaks and lenses designed based on transformation-optics (TO) could be examples of such materials. The uniqueness theorem is about the uniqueness of Maxwell's equations solutions for particular sets of boundary conditions. We prove the uniqueness theorem for three cases: Single medium, media composed of two lossy anisotropic inhomogeneous materials with diagonal constitutive parameters, and media composed of two materials, where a material with diagonal material tensors is surrounded by an isotropic material. The latter case can be considered for the TO-based materials like invisibility cloaks or hyper-lenses that usually have diagonal anisotropic inhomogeneous constitutive parameters and also because cloaks or hyper-lenses are usually surrounded by free space and the sources are usually outside. For the sake of our argument in the uniqueness theorem that loss is the main condition for the validity of this theory, for cloaks as an example case of our analysis, it is analytically and numerically proven that the ideal invisibility phenomenon is possible for a simple lossy structure. We also examine the uniqueness of the inverse problem for such structures. We prove that all these materials have the same surface field distribution on a surface enclosing the area of interest, while solutions to Maxwell's equations inside them are different. The uniqueness of the inverse problem suggests that within the surface, the same medium should exactly be present. However, for lossy anisotropic inhomogeneous structures with diagonal constitutive parameters, this paper illustrates that this might not be true, despite the result of a previous study that shows that uniqueness could be true for some anisotropic inhomogeneous structures. For the analysis, the transverse electric Z-polarization is used. The simulation results are obtained by using a commercial Finite-Element based simulator.

Half-sized cylindrical invisibility cloaks using double near zero slabs with realistic material size and properties.

Abstract: A method is introduced to miniaturize invisibility cloaks by 50% using wave tailoring and finite/non-zero wave impedance of double near zero (DNZ) slabs. Unlike previous works, which use thick dielectric matching layers to miniaturize internal cloaks, the proposed technique is applied to both internal and external cylindrical cloaks using a thin and short DNZ slab to change cloaks' shapes to half-cylinder shells. Moreover, sets of structures are introduced for the half sized cloaks to enable using feasible-to-fabricate structures with the help of a rigorous theoretical analysis, which is validated via full-wave simulations. All of the presented results show that the proposed half cloaks can function perfectly well. The sensitivity of half-sized cloaks to the length and material properties of the DNZ slab is investigated to find the shortest length and the highest values of the permittivity and permeability for the slab to have small yet realizable structures. The analysis shows that slabs with length as small as the diameter of the cloaks and constitutive parameters (permittivity and permeability) as high aseslab=μslab=0.1-0.1iand eslab=μslab=0.05-0.04i for half-sized external cloaks and half-sized internal cloaks, respectively, can still considerably reduce the scattered fields. The effect of the loss and incident angle of the field on the performance of the miniaturized cloaks are also analyzed.

Far-Field Subwavelength Straight-Line Projection/Imaging by Means of a Novel Double-Near-Zero Index-Based Two-Layer Metamaterial.

Abstract: In this paper, for the first time, tuned near-zero-index materials are used in a structure for the long-distance projection of very closely spaced objects with subwavelength separation. Near-zero-index materials have never been used for subwavelength projection/imaging. The proposed novel structure is composed of a two-layer slab that can project two slits with a subwavelength separation distance to a long distance without diverged/converged interference of the two imaged waves. The two-layer slab consists of a thin double-near-zero (DNZ) slab with an obtained tuned index of 0.05 and thickness of 0.04λ0 coupled with a high-index dielectric slab with specific thicknesses. Through a parametric study, the non-zero index of the DNZ layer is tuned to create a clear image when it is coupled with the high-index dielectric layer. The minimum size for the aperture of the proposed two-layer slab is 2λ0 to provide a clear projection of the two slits. The space between the slits is λ0/8, which is five times beyond the diffraction limit. It is shown that, through the conventional methods (e.g., only with high-index dielectric slabs, uncoupled with a DNZ layer), it is impossible to clearly project slits at a large distance (~λ0) due to the diffraction limit. An analytical analysis, as well as numerical results in a finite-element-based simulator, confirm the function of the proposed structure.

Producing near-zero-index/directivity-tunable metamaterials using transformation optics

Abstract: In some literature [Prog. Electromagn. Res.106, 107 (2010)PELREX1043-626X10.2528/PIER10060103], zero-index metamaterials are regarded as non-transformation optics (TO) materials. In this paper, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, sets of transformation mapping functions are introduced to produce near-zero-index metamaterials using TO. In addition, other than producing near-zero materials, it is shown that the proposed structures can be used in applications like radiators with highly tunable directivity when the parameters of the transformation functions are adjusted. In near-zero-index metamaterials, the refractive index is near zero when either permittivity or permeability, or both, are near zero. The introduced mapping functions are applied to a desired space. Then, using Maxwell’s equations, the wave equation and consequently the wavenumber of the transformed space is obtained. From the wave equation the obtained wavenumber is near zero. Therefore, it is concluded that the transformed space is a near-zero-index material. The mapping is provided for open and enclosed spaces. At the end, a parametric numerical analysis is provided for various sets of obtained parameters for the introduced near-zero-index materials. From the analysis it is shown that the proposed structures can also be used as radiators with tunable directivity.

Dual-Polarized Microstrip Antennas With Capacitive via Fence for Wide Beamwidth and High Isolation

Abstract: A dual-polarized microstrip antenna loaded with capacitive via fence is proposed for compact size, wide beamwidth, and high isolation. By exploring a capacitive blind-via fence near the radiating apertures, the field is concentrated between the fence and ground, achieving obvious dimension miniaturization and wide beamwidth for regular dual-polarized microstrip antennas. The proposed blind-via fence is constituted by four rows of metallic wires with subwavelength diameter, period, and gap to the ground. Thanks to the field concentration brought by the blind-via fence, high isolation is realized by suppressing the radiation from the feeding probes, similar to two disk-loaded monopole antennas, and forcing the fundamental mode of the patch. To validate the proposed concept, a prototype is fabricated and characterized with the size of 0.19 $\lambda _{0} \times 0.19\,\,\lambda _{0} \times 0.07 \lambda _{0}$ ( $\lambda _{0}$ is the free-space wavelength at the center frequency). The simulated and measured results agree well, with wide half-power beamwidth of 107° and 105° in the E- and H-planes, respectively. Meanwhile, the port isolation is higher than 32 dB within the operating bandwidth of 2.48–2.56 GHz. The proposed antenna is with the merits of compact size, wide beamwidth, and high isolation, exhibiting potential usage in diversity or multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) systems with wide-coverage applications.

Enhancing and suppressing radiation with some permeability-near-zero structures

Abstract: Using some special properties of a permeability-near-zero material, the radiation of a line current is greatly enhanced by choosing appropriately the dimension of a dielectric domain in which the source lies and that of a permeability-near-zero shell. The radiation of the source can also be completely suppressed by adding appropriately another dielectric domain or an arbitrary perfect electric conductor (PEC) inside the shell. Enhanced directive radiation is also demonstrated by adding a PEC substrate.

Near-zero metamaterial inspired UHF antenna for nanosatellite communication system.

Abstract: Epsilon-and-mu-near-zero (EMNZ) metamaterial structure inspired UHF antenna for nanosatellite has been proposed in this paper. The antenna consists of 3 × 2-unit cell array on the ground plane and a meander line radiating patch. Coaxial probe feeding technique has been obtained to excite the antenna. The meander line enables the antenna to resonate at lower UHF band and the metamaterial array is used to make the resonant frequency stable by reducing the coupling effect with metallic nanosatellite structure. The metamaterial structure exhibits EMNZ characteristics from 385 MHz to 488.5 MHz, which facilitates stable resonant frequency and higher antenna efficiency when embedded with nanosatellite structure. The proposed EMNZ inspired antenna has achieved measured impedance bandwidth (S11 < −10 dB) of 14.92 MHz (391 MHz–405.92 MHz). The perceptible novelty of this paper is the development of EMNZ metamaterial that significantly improves the UHF antenna’s operating frequency stability as well as efficiency for low earth orbit nanosatellite communications.

NiSe and CoSe Topological Nodal-Line Semimetals: A Sustainable Platform for Efficient Thermoplasmonics and Solar-Driven Photothermal Membrane Distillation.

Abstract: The control of heat at the nanoscale via the excitation of localized surface plasmons in nanoparticles (NPs) irradiated with light holds great potential in several fields (cancer therapy, catalysis, desalination). To date, most thermoplasmonic applications are based on Ag and Au NPs, whose cost of raw materials inevitably limits the scalability for industrial applications requiring large amounts of photothermal NPs, as in the case of desalination plants. On the other hand, alternative nanomaterials proposed so far exhibit severe restrictions associated with the insufficient photothermal efficacy in the visible, the poor chemical stability, and the challenging scalability. Here, it is demonstrated the outstanding potential of NiSe and CoSe topological nodal-line semimetals for thermoplasmonics. The anisotropic dielectric properties of NiSe and CoSe activate additional plasmonic resonances. Specifically, NiSe and CoSe NPs support multiple localized surface plasmons in the optical range, resulting in a broadband matching with sunlight radiation spectrum. Finally, it is validated the proposed NiSe and CoSe-based thermoplasmonic platform by implementing solar-driven membrane distillation by adopting NiSe and CoSe nanofillers embedded in a polymeric membrane for seawater desalination. Remarkably, replacing Ag with NiSe and CoSe for solar membrane distillation increases the transmembrane flux by 330% and 690%, respectively. Correspondingly, costs of raw materials are also reduced by 24 and 11 times, respectively. The results pave the way for the advent of NiSe and CoSe for efficient and sustainable thermoplasmonics and related applications exploiting sunlight within the paradigm of the circular blue economy.