Temporal Aiming

Deflecting and changing the direction of propagation of electromagnetic waves are needed in multiple applications, such as in lens-antenna systems, point-to-point communications and radars. In this realm, metamaterials have been demonstrated to be great candidates for controlling wave propagation and wave-matter interactions by offering manipulation of their electromagnetic properties at will. They have been studied mainly in the frequency domain, but their temporal manipulation has become a topic of great interest during the past few years in the design of spatiotemporally modulated artificial media. In this work, we propose an idea for changing the direction of the energy propagation of electromagnetic waves by using time-dependent metamaterials, the permittivity of which is rapidly changed from isotropic to anisotropic values, an approach that we call temporal aiming. In so doing, here, we show how the direction of the Poynting vector becomes different from that of the wavenumber. Several scenarios are analytically and numerically evaluated, such as plane waves under oblique incidence and Gaussian beams, demonstrating how proper engineering of the isotropic–anisotropic temporal function of ε(t) can lead to a redirection of waves to different spatial locations in real time.

Victor Pacheco-Peña, Nader Engheta