Observation of broadband super-absorption of electromagnetic waves through space-time symmetry breaking

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ciabattoni, Matteo, Hayran, Zeki, Monticone, Francesco
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866915013800755200
author Ciabattoni, Matteo
Hayran, Zeki
Monticone, Francesco
author_facet Ciabattoni, Matteo
Hayran, Zeki
Monticone, Francesco
contents Using time as an additional design parameter in electromagnetism, photonics, and wave physics is attracting considerable research interest, motivated by the possibility to explore physical phenomena and engineering opportunities beyond the physical limits of time-invariant systems. However, despite substantial theoretical promise, the practical realization and observation of many new effects and capabilities leveraging such temporal degrees of freedom have remained elusive. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of enhanced broadband absorption of electromagnetic waves in a continuously modulated time-varying system, exceeding one of the key theoretical limits of linear time-invariant absorbers. This is achieved by harnessing the frequency-wavevector transitions and enhanced interference effects enabled by breaking both continuous space- and time-translation symmetries in a periodically time-modulated absorbing structure operating at radio-frequencies. Furthermore, we demonstrate broadband coherent wave absorption using a secondary control wave, observing a nearly perfect, reconfigurable, anti-reflection effect over a broad continuous bandwidth. Our findings provide new insights to challenge existing paradigms on the limits of wave absorption and may pave the way to the development of devices that operate in a regime fundamentally beyond the reach of any linear time-invariant system.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_14679
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Observation of broadband super-absorption of electromagnetic waves through space-time symmetry breaking
Ciabattoni, Matteo
Hayran, Zeki
Monticone, Francesco
Optics
Applied Physics
Using time as an additional design parameter in electromagnetism, photonics, and wave physics is attracting considerable research interest, motivated by the possibility to explore physical phenomena and engineering opportunities beyond the physical limits of time-invariant systems. However, despite substantial theoretical promise, the practical realization and observation of many new effects and capabilities leveraging such temporal degrees of freedom have remained elusive. Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of enhanced broadband absorption of electromagnetic waves in a continuously modulated time-varying system, exceeding one of the key theoretical limits of linear time-invariant absorbers. This is achieved by harnessing the frequency-wavevector transitions and enhanced interference effects enabled by breaking both continuous space- and time-translation symmetries in a periodically time-modulated absorbing structure operating at radio-frequencies. Furthermore, we demonstrate broadband coherent wave absorption using a secondary control wave, observing a nearly perfect, reconfigurable, anti-reflection effect over a broad continuous bandwidth. Our findings provide new insights to challenge existing paradigms on the limits of wave absorption and may pave the way to the development of devices that operate in a regime fundamentally beyond the reach of any linear time-invariant system.
title Observation of broadband super-absorption of electromagnetic waves through space-time symmetry breaking
topic Optics
Applied Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.14679