Microwave and Optical Technology Letters

A 2D Gaussian beam launcher applied in parallel plate

waveguide field mapping systems

Journal: Microwave and Optical Technology Letters

Manuscript ID MOP-21-0271

Wiley - Manuscript type: Research Article

Date Submitted by the

26-Feb-2021
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Author:

Complete List of Authors: Zhu, Bo; Nanjing University

Xu, Ke; Nanjing University
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2D Gaussian beam; field mapping; parallel plate waveguide; beam

Keywords:
launcher
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Note: The following files were submitted by the author for peer review, but cannot be converted to PDF.
You must view these files (e.g. movies) online.
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table.tex
ref-r1.bib
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Page 1 of 24 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters

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Page 5 of 24 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters

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2 TABLE 1 The design parameters (𝑍𝐿 = 50Ω)
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4 Port No. 𝑍𝑛 (Ω) 𝑍0𝑛 (Ω) 𝐸𝑛
5 1 4.45 14.93 1.0∠0◦
6 2 8.13 20.16 0.74∠ − 15◦
7 3 26.47 36.37 0.41∠ − 44◦
8 4 173.83 93.23 0.16∠ − 88◦
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 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters Page 6 of 24

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11 Replies to Review-Comments
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February 25, 2021
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19 Manuscript ID: MOP-20-1139
Manuscript Title: A 2D Gaussian beam launcher applied in parallel plate waveg-
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uide field mapping systems
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Reviewer 1
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26 Comment:
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27 This work presents an integrated power-divider, a phase-shifter, and a radi-

28 ator array to develop a beam launcher. The three components are masterfully
29 designed and integrated. It feeds each radiator with a different magnitude and
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30 phase. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is then verified by simulation

31 and measurement results. However, some aspects need to be improved.
32 1- Some of the paper’s equations can be found in the literature, and authors
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33 do not have to write all of them. They can simply refer to the literature.
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Reply:
35
We thank the reviewer for his/her job, and appreciate the constructive com-
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ments. We have removed Eq. (1). The other equations are kept for convenience
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of discussion.
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39 Comment:
40 2- The introduction is brief and does not give a good overview of the topic.
41 This work is basically about designing power divider and phase shifters, while
42 many design techniques of these two components are not covered in the introduc-
43 tion. Some techniques for power divider design are explained in A neurobased
44 approach to designing a Wilkinson power divider that can be added in the intro.
45 3- Phase shifters also play an essential role in this work, which should be elab-
46 orated more in the intro. There are a variety of ways to design phase shifters. It
47 should be mentioned in the intro that phase shifters can be made of all-dielectric
48 structures as explained in (simulation-driven particle swarm optimization of spa-
49 tial phase shifters) and (Design of a dielectric phase-correcting structure for an
50 EBG resonator antenna using particle swarm optimization), printed dielectric
51 surfaces using frequency selective surfaces as explained multiobjective particle
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Page 7 of 24 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters

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8 swarm optimization to design a time-delay equalizer metasurface for an elec-
9 tromagnetic band-gap resonator antenna, or all-metallic surfaces as explained
10 in Low-Cost Nonuniform Metallic Lattice for Rectifying Aperture Near-Field of
11 Electromagnetic Bandgap Resonator Antennas. This is important to give the
12 readers an idea about other ways of designing phase shifters.
13 Reply:
14 Thank you for the suggestion. We have revised the Introduction by adding
15 more explanations, and have also given reference to these papers. The modifi-
16 cations are shown in red color.
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18 Comment:
19 4- More explanation is required about the simulation process
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21 Reply:
22 In the second paragraph of Sec. 3, we have added more explanations and
23 details about the simulation. Just let us know if other information is important
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24 but we have missed.

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Comment:
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5- What about the limitations of the presented lens? Please comment

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28 Reply:
29 The major limitation of the presented lens could be narrow frequency band-
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30 width. In practice, invariant beam waist width and position relative to frequency
31 is desired. However, Eq. (1) in the main
 text shows that the required aperture
32

−y 2
field varies along the y axis as exp w2 +i2x/k . When k is changed, the re-
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33 0
quired aperture field distribution, both amplitude and phase, will change. As
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for the proposed Gaussian beam launcher, the power dividing ratio changes with
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frequency because quarter wavelength impedance transformer is used, and the
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phase difference among the ports also changes proportionally with frequency.
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The proportionality factor is the physical length difference among the branches
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of the phase shifter. However, the variation of the produced aperture field does
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not match the variation of the required aperture field when the frequency devi-
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ates from the design frequency.
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42 Comment:
43 6- The paper needs a very good proofread. There are several minor typos
44 throughout the paper
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46 Reply:
47 Thanks. We have carefully proofread the manuscript, and have made some
48 corrections. The modifications are shown in red color.
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50 Comment:
51 7- Why are capital fonts used for the references?
52 Reply:
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 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters Page 8 of 24

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8 We have modified the fonts in references.
9 Comment:
10 8- One comparison table is recommended to be added to compare the prosed
11 techniques with others
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13 Reply:
14 Thanks for the comment. A Gaussian beam launcher produces not only the
15 fundamental Gaussian beam mode, but also the higher order Gaussian beam
16 modes which are usually called Gaussian-Hermite modes in Cartesian coordinate
17 or Gaussian-Laguerre modes in polar coordinate. The higher the fractional
18 power of the fundamental mode is, the better the Gaussian beam launcher
19 is. Hence, we compared the fractional power of the fundamental mode among
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20 different beam launchers, as listed in Table 1. It should be noted that, according
21 to our literatures survey, only the data of 3D Gaussian beam launchers are
22 available [2].
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24
25 Table 1: Comparison of the fractional power of the fundamental mode
26 Scalar Circular Square Rectangular Diagonal The proposed method
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27 0.98 0.93 0.88 0.88 0.84 0.99

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29 The detailed derivation for the fractional power of the proposed method is
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30 given below.
31 The Gauss-Hermite modes are orthogonal and complete basis to expand a
32 paraxial wave [1]. The 2D Gauss-Hermite modes can be derived as
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33
y2
 
34 − 12
Ez0 (y, x) = w (ζ) exp − 2 − iψ0 exp (ikx) , (1a)
35 w0 (1 + iζ)
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√ y y2
   
−1
37 Ezm (y, x) = w (ζ) 2 Hm 2 exp − 2 − iψm exp (ikx) ,
w (ζ) w0 (1 + iζ)
38 (1b)
39
40
p 2x 1


where w (ζ) = w0 1 + ζ 2 , ζ = kw 2 , ψm = 2 + m arctan ζ, and m = 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . .
41 0
In our design, the aperture field is the sampling of the fundamental Gauss-
42 Hermite mode. Hence, we use the sampling function F (y), as shown in Fig. 4,
43 to express the aperture field as
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45 +∞
X
46 Ea (y) = F (y) Ez0 (y, xa ) = Am Ezm (y, xa ) , (2)
47 m=0
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which yields
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50 +∞
" √ #
X 2y
51 F (y) = Am Hm , (3)
w (ζa )
52 m=0
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19 Figure 1: The aperture field sampling function.
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21 2xa
where ζa = kw 2.
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23 Employing the orthogonality of Hermite polynomials, overlap integration is

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24 performed so as to determine the expansion coefficients Am as

25 √ m
−1 +∞
Z 
w (ζa ) y

2
26 Am = π2 m! F √ Hm (y) e−y dy (4a)
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−∞ 2
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N
28 √ m
−1 X
 
w (ζa ) yj
= π2 m! wj F √ Hm (yj ) , (4b)
29 2
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j=1
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31 where wj and yj are the weights and abscissas of the Gauss-Hermite quadrature.
32 Finally, the powers coupled to each modes are
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33 r
34 Pm = |Am |
2 π m
2 m!. (5)
35 2
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For the designs shown in the main text with the assumption T1 = T /2, the
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fractional power of the fundamental mode is estimated beyond 99%.
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40 Reviewer 2
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43 Comment:
44 A 2D Gaussian beam launcher is presented in this paper. An unequal power
45 assigning part is introduced which consists of an impedance transformer and
46 the phase shifter integrated to it. Electromagnetic full wave solver based on the
47 finite integration technique is used.
48 However, it is difficult to understand the description which is written abruptly
49 in theory and design part.
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Reply:
51
We are sorry for the confusing description. Actually, the idea is very simple.
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In a source free region, the electromagnetic field can be uniquely determined
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 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters Page 10 of 24

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8 with the knowledge of the tangential electric or magnetic fields on the boundary.
9 Hence, in order to generate a Gaussian beam, we only need to produce the
10 tangential electric field distribution on a cross section of the Gaussian beam
11 perpendicular to the propagation direction, as shown in Fig. 2. The radiation
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31 Figure 2: Boundary conditions and fields.
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33 boundary condition is automatically satisfied.

34 As illustrated in Fig. 3, the 2D field mapping system, where the 2D Gaussian
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48 Figure 3: The Gaussian beam launcher in 2D field mapping systems.
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50 beam launcher is used as the source, is essentially composed of two parallel PEC
51 plates. Due to the image effect of PEC, only the radiators in a row are employed
52 to produce the 2D Gaussian beam with each radiator excited with the correct
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8 amplitude and phase. Ideally, a continuous aperture field is desired, but which
9 is not easy to realize. Hence, we use the radiator array to produce a discretized
10 aperture field to approximate the ideal case. It is easy to adjust the feeding
11 amplitude and phase to each radiator with the matured microwave engineering
12 technology, and it is shown through the Gaussian-Hermite mode expansion that
13 the discretization has little negative impact on the Gaussian beam generation.
14 Comment:
15 The novelty of proposed 2D Gaussian beam launcher is not cleared as there
16 is not very well defined description regarding to the number of radiators that
17 has been used in attaining the results.
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19 Reply:
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20 Thanks for the comment. According to our literature survey, there are some
21 methods to generate 3D Gaussian beams, but almost no report on 2D Gaussian
22 beam generations. Hence, the novelty of this work is a simple method of 2D
23
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Gaussian beam generation, which, for instance, can be applied in 2D field map-
24 ping systems. The 2D field mapping system, invented by Goldsmith, maps the
25 electric field in a parallel plate waveguide apparatus [3]. Such a field mapping
26 technique is mostly used in metamaterial researches. The traditional method
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27 to launch an incident plane wave for experiments in such systems is using a

28 rectangular waveguide port [3]. The far-field condition needs to be satisfied
29 in order to have an approximated plane wave incident onto samples under test.
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30 Gaussian beams, however, can provide local plane waves at the beam waist with
31 the adjustable waist width and location. Hence, a 2D Gaussian beam launcher
32 is more suitable as the source of 2D field mapping systems.
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34 Comment:
35 The beam waist field deviation around the 10 cm needs to be explained
36 which is also the deficiency of proposed launcher.
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37 Reply:
38 In Fig. 3C, The beam waist is actually about 10 cm. The deviation is
39 because that the Gaussian beam launcher is a little tilted in the experiment so
40 that the normal direction of the launcher’s aperture is not parallel with the x
41 axis.
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43 Comment:
44 It must be appropriate if the results of diffraction and refraction of generated
45 beams is analyzed and shared in the paper.
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47 Reply:
48 Thanks for the comment. In the revision, we analyzed the power coupling
49 efficiencies to not only the fundamental but also the higher order 2D Gauss-
50 Hermite modes. The Gauss-Hermite modes are orthogonal and complete basis
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19 Figure 4: The aperture field sampling function.
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to expand a paraxial wave [1]. The 2D Gauss-Hermite modes can be derived as
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y2
 
− 12
24 Ez0 (y, x) = w (ζ) exp − 2 − iψ0 exp (ikx) , (6a)
w0 (1 + iζ)
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√ y y2
   
26 −1
exp − 2 − iψm exp (ikx) ,
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Ezm (y, x) = w (ζ) 2 Hm 2

27 w (ζ) w0 (1 + iζ)
28 (6b)
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p 2x 1


30 where w (ζ) = w0 1 + ζ 2 , ζ = kw 2 , ψm = 2 + m arctan ζ, and m = 0, 1, 2, 3, . . . .
0
31 In our design, the aperture field is the sampling of the fundamental Gauss-
32 Hermite mode. Hence, we use the sampling function F (y), as shown in Fig. 4,
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33 to express the aperture field as

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+∞
35 X
Ea (y) = F (y) Ez0 (y, xa ) = Am Ezm (y, xa ) , (7)
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m=0
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38 which yields
39 " √ #
+∞
40 X 2y
41 F (y) = Am Hm , (8)
m=0
w (ζa )
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43 2xa
where ζa = kw 2.
44 0
Employing the orthogonality of Hermite polynomials, overlap integration is
45
performed so as to determine the expansion coefficients Am as
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47 √ m
−1 +∞
Z 
w (ζa ) y

2
48 Am = π2 m! F √ Hm (y) e−y dy (9a)
−∞ 2
49
N
50 √ m
−1 X
 
w (ζa ) yj
= π2 m! wj F √ Hm (yj ) , (9b)
51 2
j=1
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Page 13 of 24 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters

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8 where wj and yj are the weights and abscissas of the Gauss-Hermite quadrature.
9 Finally, the powers coupled to each modes are
10 r
2 π m
11 Pm = |Am | 2 m!. (10)
12 2
13 For the designs shown in the main text with the assumption T1 = T /2, the
14 fractional power of the fundamental mode is estimated beyond 99%.
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16 Comment:
17 The dimension of overall PCB is also not mentioned.
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19 Reply:
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20 The dimension of the unequal-power-divider and phase-shifter is 20 cm by 12
21 cm. The dimension of the radiation array is 20.4 cm by 1.3 cm. The thickness
22 of the PCB board is 1 mm.
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Comment:
24 Furthermore, there are many grammatical and punctuation flaws mentioned
25 below.
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1. Unnecessary use of punctuation on pg1 and line 42 waist.

27 2. Grammatical error on page 1 line 47.
28 3. Page 2 line 2. Punctuation error far-field.
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4. Page 2 line 6. Grammatical error literature.

30 5. Page 2 line 44. Punctuation error vacuum-free.
31 6. Page 2 line 52. Grammatical error is realized grammatical error.
32 7. Page 2 Line 56. Grammatical error with a different magnitude line.
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33 8. Page 2 Line 57. Grammatical error four ports on one side.

34 9. Page 3 Line 44 Punctuation error measurement, and theory results.
35 10. Page 3 Line 38 Grammatical error is achieved.
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11. Page 3 Line 57 Grammatical error introduced to it.

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38 Reply:
39 We appreciate your kind help on the language. All these errors have been
40 corrected. The changes are marked in red color.
41
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43 References
44
45 [1] Jörg Enderlein and Francesco Pampaloni. Unified operator approach for
46 deriving hermite–gaussian and laguerre–gaussian laser modes. J. Opt. Soc.
47 Am. A, 21(8):1553–1558, Aug 2004.
48 [2] P. F. Goldsmith. Quasi-optical techniques. Proceedings of the IEEE,
49 80(11):1729–1747, 1992.
50
51 [3] Bryan J. Justice, Jack J. Mock, Liheng Guo, Aloyse Degiron, David Schurig,
52 and David R. Smith. Spatial mapping of the internal and external electro-
53
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 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters Page 14 of 24

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8 magnetic fields of negative index metamaterials. Opt. Express, 14(19):8694–
9 8705, Sep 2006.
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Page 15 of 24 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters
Received <day> <Month>, <year>; Revised <day> <Month>, <year>; Accepted <day> <Month>, <year>

DOI: xxx/xxxx
1
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3 ARTICLE TYPE
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5 A 2D Gaussian beam launcher applied in parallel plate waveguide
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7 field mapping systems
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10 Ke Xu | Bo O. Zhu*
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13 School of Electronic Science and
Engineering, Nanjing University, Jiangsu, Abstract
14
China
15 3D Gaussian beam generation techniques have been studied by many researchers,
16 Correspondence while the problem of 2D Gaussian beam generations have not been addressed fully.
17 *Bo O. Zhu, School of Electronic Science
However, 2D Gaussian beams are still useful in research and applications. This paper
18 and Engineering, Nanjing University,
19 Nanjing, Jinagsu 210023, P. R. China. presents the mechanism, design, simulation, and measurement of a 2D Gaussian
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20 Email: bzhu@nju.edu.cn beam launcher, which allows the easy control of the width and the location of Gaus-
21 sian beam waist. The proposed Gaussian beam launcher consists of a radiator array
22
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fed with the designable excitation phase and magnitude to each radiator, so as to
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24 generate the necessary boundary condition that the Gaussian beam can be excited
25 and propagate. Both simulation and measurement results are nearly identical with
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the profile of the lowest-order 2D Gaussian beam mode. The proposed 2D Gaussian
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beam launcher is suitable as the excitation source of parallel plate waveguide mea-
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29 surement systems. By integrating tunable components, it can be easily extended in
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30 the future to control Gaussian beam parameters dynamically.

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32 KEYWORDS:
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33 2D Gaussian beam; field mapping; parallel plate waveguide; beam launcher

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38 1 INTRODUCTION
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40 Gaussian beams are electromagnetic radiations whose transverse electric field distribution can be well approximated by a Gaus-
41 sian function. The mathematical derivations show that Gaussian beams are solutions to the paraxial form of the Helmholtz
42 equation 1,2 . It is similar in many aspects to plane waves at the beam waist but can be produced much easier than plane waves in
43 practice.
44 The 3D Gaussian beam modes generated by different types of horn antennas at millimeter waves have been studied by many
45 researchers. Through geometry designs, some horn antennas, such as conical corrugated horn antennas 3,4,5,6 , diagonal horn
46 antennas 7 , corrugated pyramidal square horn antennas 8 , and hexagonal horn antennas 9 , have an aperture field very similar
47 to the field distribution of the lowest order Gaussian beam at a cross section perpendicular to the propagation direction. As a
48 result, most of the radiation energy is coupled to the lowest order Gaussian beam mode. This mode is circularly symmetric so
49
that its radiation pattern is also circularly symmetric. These horn antennas have been used as the feed antennas of electrically
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large reflector antennas. Dielectric spheres and thin lens are also used to focus the incident beams so that the outgoing wave is
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52 the lowest order Gaussian beams 10,11,12 . This technique is applied in microwave exposure studies. In Ref 13 , dual spatial phase
53 shifters are used to modulate both amplitude and phase of the aperture field so as to produce Gaussian beams. Gaussian beams
54 can be applied in optical communication systems 14,15 . Some quasi-optical techniques. e.g. ray matrix, instead of full wave theory
55 are used in the analysis and design of Gaussian beam launchers 16 .
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 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters Page 16 of 24

2 KE XU ET AL
1
2 The methods mentioned above generate 3D Gaussian beams. 2D Gaussian beams are also important. For instance, it is a good
3 choice as the source of the 2D field mapping system 17 . The 2D field mapping system, invented by Goldsmith, maps the electric
4 field in a parallel plate waveguide apparatus. Such a field mapping technique can provide a decisive confirmation of the validity of
5 the effective medium description of metamaterials, in addition to being an effective tool to assess the performance of artificially
6 structured materials. The traditional method to launch an incident plane wave for experiments in such an apparatus is using a
7 rectangular waveguide port 17 . The far-field condition needs to be satisfied to have an approximated plane wave incident onto
8 samples under test. Gaussian beams, however, can provide local plane waves at the beam waist with the adjustable waist width
9 and location. Hence, a 2D Gaussian beam launcher is more suitable as the source of the field mapping systems. To the best of
10
our knowledge, there is limited literature about 2D Gaussian beam launching. In this paper, a simple 2D Gaussian beam launcher
11
is presented. It consists of an integrated unequal-power-divider and phase-shifter, and a radiator array. Unlike the mechanism
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13 of 3D Gaussian beam launchers, the aperture field of the radiator array, which is required to generate a 2D Gaussian beam, is
14 realized by carefully adjusting the feeding power and phase at each port of the radiator. The width and the location of the beam
15 waist can be easily designed with the proposed method as the components, e.g. power dividers and phase shifters, are matured
16 techniques in microwave engineering 18,19,20,21 .
17
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19 2 THEORY
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21 The Gaussian modes can be obtained from the paraxial wave equation 22 . The lowest-order 2D Gaussian beam, polarized along
22 the 𝑧 axis and traveling along the 𝑥 axis, can be derived as
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23 ( )
( )− 12
24 2𝑥 𝑦 2
𝐸𝑧 (𝑦, 𝑥) = 𝐸0 𝑤20 + 𝑖 exp − exp (𝑖𝑘𝑥) , (1)
25 𝑘 𝑤20 + 𝑖 2𝑥
26
ee

27 where 𝐸0 is the electric field amplitude at the center of the beam waist located at 𝑥 = 0, 𝑦 is the transverse position from the
28 central axis of the beam, and 𝑥 is the axial position from the beam waist 23 . The half beam waist width 𝑤0 is the half width of the
29 𝑒−1 field at the beam waist. 𝑘 = 𝜔∕𝑐 is the wave number. The time factor 𝑒−𝑖𝜔𝑡 is adopted. The magnetic field can be calculated
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30 ( )
( ) 1⎡ 2𝑖𝑘𝑦2
⎤
𝑦2
31 𝑖 2 2𝑥 − 2 ⎢ 1 ⎥
𝐻𝑦 (𝑦, 𝑥) = 𝐸 𝑤0 + 𝑖 − − + 𝑖𝑘 exp − exp (𝑖𝑘𝑥) . (2)
32 𝜔𝜇0 0 𝑘 ⎢ 2𝑥 − 𝑖𝑘𝑤2 (2𝑥 − 𝑖𝑘𝑤2 )2 ⎥ 𝑤20 + 𝑖 2𝑥
⎣ ⎦
ev

0 0 𝑘
33
34 At the beam waist region 𝑥 = 0, Eqs. (1) and (2) are reduced to
35
2
− 𝑦2
iew

𝑤
36 𝐸𝑧 (𝑦, 0) = 𝐸0 𝑒 0 , (3)
( )
37 1 1 2𝑦2 − 2 𝑦2
𝑘 − 2 𝑦2
𝑤 𝑤
38 𝐻𝑦 (𝑦, 0) = 𝐸 − − 𝑘 𝑒 0 ≈ − 𝐸 𝑒 0 , (4)
𝜔𝜇0 0 2
𝑘𝑤0 𝑘𝑤0 4 𝜔𝜇 0
0
39
40 where the approximation is valid if 𝑤0 ≫ 𝜆, 𝜆 is the wavelength. As seen, 2D Gaussian beams can approximate plane waves at
41 the beam waist with the typical vacuum wave impedance 377Ω, which is important for reflection and transmission experiments.
42 The width of the beam waist can be controlled to cover the sample under test.
43 The field distribution in free space is determined by the boundary condition.
( Gaussian
) beams can be generated by producing
44 𝑦2
the corresponding boundary conditions first. In Eq. (1), the term exp − is the complex amplitude distribution in a
45 𝑤20 +𝑖 2𝑥
𝑘
46 transverse plane at 𝑥. Hence, by producing such a tangential electric field distribution, the spatial field can be produced that
47 approximates the Gaussian beam’s function. The chosen 𝑥 determines the distance between the antenna aperture and the beam
48 waist.
49 Practically, we use a finite number of radiators to produce the sampling of the tangential electric field distribution on the
50 cross section of an ideal Gaussian beam perpendicular to the propagation direction. The individual radiators are excited with
51 the corresponding powers and phases calculated from Eq. (1). It is shown in Sec. 4 that the discretization of the ideal boundary
52 condition has little negative impact on the 2D Gaussian beam generation.
53
The proposed Gaussian beam launcher consists of an integrated unequal-power-divider and phase-shifter as shown in Fig.
54
1 A, and a radiator array as shown in Fig. 1 B. Because of the image effect of the upper and lower PEC plates of the 2D field
55
56 mapping system 17 as illustrated in Fig. 2 A, this radiator array can generate a 2D Gaussian beam. The integrated unequal-
57 power-divider and phase-shifter consists of the unequal power assigning part indicated by the dotted box and the phase-shifter
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Page 17 of 24 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters

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33 FIGURE 1 (A) The integrated unequal-power-divider and phase-shifter consists of an unequal power assigning part indicated
34 by the dotted box and a phase-shifter. (B) The radiator array with vias that electrically connect the output ports of the unequal-
35 power-divider and the corresponding radiators. (C) The equivalent circuit of the proposed Gaussian beam launcher.
iew

36
37
38 part. It feeds each radiator with a different magnitude and phase. Because of the mirror symmetry, we only discuss the four ports
39 on one side of the symmetry plane shown in Fig. 1 A.
40 In the design of the unequal power assigning part, the power dividing ratio is equal to the ratio of the squared electric field
41 amplitude of the ideal boundary field samplings at the radiator locations. The mathematical relation between the input power at
42
each port and the electric field amplitude near the radiators is
43
44 𝑃1 𝑃2 𝑃3 𝑃4
45 = = = , (5)
|𝐸1 | 2 |𝐸2 | 2 |𝐸3 | 2 |𝐸4 |2
46
47 where the subscripts denote the port index and the corresponding radiator.
48 To realize such a power dividing ratio, we use a quarter wavelength impedance transformer to transform the input impedance
49 𝑍𝐿 of each radiator to the required value 𝑍𝑛 looking into the input port of the power-divider, as illustrated in Fig. 1 C. According
50 to Eq. (5) and using 𝑃 = 𝑈 2 ∕𝑍, the relation between 𝑍𝑛 and 𝐸𝑛 is obtained as
51
52 𝑍1 |𝐸1 |2 = 𝑍2 |𝐸2 |2 = 𝑍3 |𝐸3 |2 = 𝑍4 |𝐸4 |2 . (6)
53
54 The input impedance√of the radiator 𝑍𝐿 is chosen as 50Ω. The character impedance of the quarter wavelength impedance
55 transformer is 𝑍0𝑛 = 𝑍𝐿 𝑍𝑛 . Hence, we have
56
57 𝑍01 |𝐸1 | = 𝑍02 |𝐸2 | = 𝑍03 |𝐸3 | = 𝑍04 |𝐸4 |. (7)
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 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters Page 18 of 24

4 KE XU ET AL
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2 TABLE 1 The design parameters (𝑍𝐿 = 50Ω)
3
4 Port No. 𝑍𝑛 (Ω) 𝑍0𝑛 (Ω) 𝐸𝑛
5 1 4.45 14.93 1.0∠0◦
6 2 8.13 20.16 0.74∠ − 15◦
7 3 26.47 36.37 0.41∠ − 44◦
8 4 173.83 93.23 0.16∠ − 88◦
9
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13 To realize the required phase distribution at the radiator array aperture, a phase-shifter with the varied physical length of each
14 branch is integrated with the power assigning part, as shown in Fig. 1 A.
15
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19 3 DESIGN, SIMULATION AND MEASUREMENT
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21 As an example, we have designed a Gaussian beam launcher working at 6.7 GHz, which generates a 2D Gaussian beam with
22 the beam waist located at 15 cm from the radiator array. The width of the beam waist is 10 cm. The design parameters are given
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23 in Table 1 .
24 We designed and optimized the Gaussian beam launcher by using an electromagnetic full wave solver based on the finite
25 integration technique. The model is shown in Fig. 2 A. The PEC-radiation boundary conditions were employed in the simulation
26
ee

to mimic the 2D field mapping system, which is essentailly a parallel metallic plate waveguide. The electric field polarization
27
is along the 𝑧 axis. The dielectric substrate of both the power-divider and the radiator array is chosen as FR4 with the relative
28
permittivity of 4.3, the loss tangent of 0.025, and the thickness of 1 mm. The metal on the top and bottom layers are modeled as
29
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30 the PEC boudary conditions. The metallic wires on the top layer of the dielectric substrate are modulated to meet the request of
31 the power dividing ratio and phase delay. The characteristic impedance of the transmission lines of the phase shifter is 50Ω. The
32 size of each radiator’s metal patch is 5.6 mm by 5.6 mm. Each radiator is simulated with the PEC-PMC boundary conditions in
ev

33 order to approximately incorporate the coupling effect with neighboring radiators, as is shown in Fig. 2 A. The validity of the
34 use of PEC-PMC boundary conditions is that the feeding amplitudes and phases of neighboring ports are close to each other. The
35 radiators were optimized to work at the design frequency with 50Ω input impedance in the array environment. The radiator array
iew

36 is excited by the integrated unequal-power-divider and phase-shifter so as to generate the necessary field boundary condition for
37 the 2D Gaussian beam. The simulated instantaneous electric field distribution and field intensity are shown in Fig. 2 B, which
38 exhibits the profile of the 2D Gaussian beam.
39 Experiments were also carried out to verify the performance of the proposed Gaussian beam launcher. The experiments were
40
performed with a 2D field mapping system, as is shown in Fig. 2 C. The system consists of a vector network analyzer (VNA),
41
a planar parallel plate waveguide chamber, and a pair of orthogonal 𝑥𝑦 linear 2D motion stages 17 . A custom LabView program
42
43 coordinates the motion of the stages with the field scanning through data acquisition of the VNA. The collected signal data are
44 stored as complex values in matrices, and we use MATLAB to map the fields.
45 The measured electric field of the Gaussian beam is shown in Fig. 2 D. They are nearly identical to the simulation results,
46 especially near the center axis. They all have the profile of the lowest-order Gaussian beam mode. The field amplitude and phase
47 distributions along the 𝑦 axis at the beam waist are shown in Fig. 2 E and 2 F respectively. As seen, the amplitude distribution
48 agrees with a Gaussian function profile with the 10 cm waist width. Moreover, an equal phase distribution is achieved at the
49 beam waist. There is some phase deviation in the region outside the 10 cm waist width in the measurement results, but the field
50 amplitude is also weak there, hence this error can be ignored.
51 To further validate the proposed method, another beam launcher, which works at 6 GHz with the same beam waist width and
52 position, is designed and measured. The simulated and measured field distributions are shown in Fig. 3 A and 3 B respectively,
53
and the field distributions along the 𝑦 axis at the waist are shown in Fig. 3 C. It can be seen that a 2D Gaussian beam is
54
generated with 10 cm beam width at around 15 cm away from the radiator array aperture. Good agreement among simulation,
55
56 measurement, and theory results is obtained within the beam waist region, indicating that the proposed method is general and
57 effective for 2D Gaussian beam generation with various beam parameters.
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40 FIGURE 2 (A) The proposed 2D Gaussian beam launcher and the single patch antenna radiator in simulation. (B) The instan-
41 taneous electric field and the field intensity of the 2D Gaussian beam in simulation (𝑓 = 6.7 GHz, beam waist 15 cm away from
42 the aperture, waist width 10 cm.). The antenna aperture is located at 𝑥 = 0 cm and 𝑦 = 0 − 20 cm. (C) The 2D field mapping
43 system and the Gaussian beam launcher inside the field mapping system. (d) The measured instantaneous electric field and the
44 field intensity of the 2D Gaussian beam. The Gaussian beam’s electric field (e) amplitude and (f) phase distributions along 𝑦
45 axis at the beam waist. The light green color area denotes the beam waist width.
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4 POWER COUPLING EFFICIENCY
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56 We analyzed the power coupling efficiencies to not only the fundamental but also the higher order 2D Gauss-Hermite modes.
57 The Gauss-Hermite modes are orthogonal and complete basis to expand a paraxial wave 2 . The 2D Gauss-Hermite modes can
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 Microwave and Optical Technology Letters Page 20 of 24

6 KE XU ET AL
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2 be derived as
[ ]
3 − 12 𝑦2
4 𝐸𝑧0 (𝑦, 𝑥) = 𝑤 (𝜁) exp − 2 − 𝑖𝜓0 exp (𝑖𝑘𝑥) , (8a)
𝑤0 (1 + 𝑖𝜁)
5 [√ ] [ ]
6 − 12 𝑦 𝑦2
7 𝐸𝑧𝑚 (𝑦, 𝑥) = 𝑤 (𝜁) 𝐻𝑚 2 exp − 2 − 𝑖𝜓𝑚 exp (𝑖𝑘𝑥) , (8b)
𝑤 (𝜁) 𝑤0 (1 + 𝑖𝜁)
8 √ ( )
9 where 𝑤 (𝜁) = 𝑤0 1 + 𝜁 2 , 𝜁 = 𝑘𝑤 2𝑥
2 , 𝜓𝑚 =
1
+ 𝑚 arctan 𝜁, and 𝑚 = 0, 1, 2, 3, … .
2
10 0
In our design, the aperture field is the sampling of the fundamental Gauss-Hermite mode. Hence, we use the sampling function
11 𝐹 (𝑦), as shown in Fig. 4 , to express the aperture field as
12
13 ( ) ∑+∞
( )
𝐸𝑎 (𝑦) = 𝐹 (𝑦) 𝐸𝑧0 𝑦, 𝑥𝑎 = 𝐴𝑚 𝐸𝑧𝑚 𝑦, 𝑥𝑎 , (9)
14
𝑚=0
15
16 which yields
[ √ ]
17 ∑
+∞
2𝑦
18 𝐹 (𝑦) = 𝐴𝑚 𝐻𝑚 ( ) , (10)
𝑤 𝜁𝑎
19 𝑚=0
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20 2𝑥
where 𝜁𝑎 = 𝑘𝑤𝑎2 .
21 0
Employing the orthogonality of Hermite polynomials, overlap integration is performed so as to determine the expansion
22
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coefficients 𝐴𝑚 as
23
+∞ [ ( ) ]
24 (√ )−1 𝑤 𝜁𝑎 𝑦 2
25 𝐴𝑚 = 𝑚
𝜋2 𝑚! 𝐹 √ 𝐻𝑚 (𝑦) 𝑒−𝑦 d𝑦 (11a)
∫
26
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−∞
2
27 [ ( ) ]
(√ )−1 ∑𝑁
𝑤 𝜁𝑎 𝑦𝑗 ( )
28 = 𝜋2𝑚 𝑚! 𝑤𝑗 𝐹 √ 𝐻𝑚 𝑦𝑗 , (11b)
29
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𝑗=1 2
30 where 𝑤𝑗 and 𝑦𝑗 are the weights and abscissas of the Gauss-Hermite quadrature. Finally, the powers coupled to each mode are
31 √
32 𝜋 𝑚
𝑃𝑚 = ||𝐴𝑚 ||
2
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2 𝑚!. (12)
33 2
34 For the designs shown in the main text with the assumption 𝑇1 = 𝑇 ∕2, the fractional power of the fundamental mode is estimated
35 beyond 99%.
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39 5 CONCLUSIONS
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41 A 2D Gaussian beam launcher is proposed by employing an integrated unequal-power-divider and a phase-shifter linked to a
42 radiator array. It provides the necessary boundary condition to produce 2D Gaussian beams. The simulation and experiment
43 show that such a simple structure can generate 2D Gaussian beams successfully. The width and location of the beam waist
44 can be designed easily with the proposed approach. Currently, the proposed 2D Gaussian beam launcher can only launch a 2D
45 Gaussian beam with the fixed location and width of the beam waist. It could be more useful if tuning techniques are introduced
46 to it. For example, the phase-shifter and power-divider can be integrated with tuning elements so that the beam waist’s location
47 and width can be adjusted dynamically. The proposed approach is compatible with such an idea.
48 This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (61571216).
49
50
51
52 References
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54 [1] Kogelnik H, Li T. Laser Beams and Resonators. Appl. Opt. 1966; 5(10): 1550–1567. doi: 10.1364/AO.5.001550
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57 J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 2004; 21(8): 1553–1558. doi: 10.1364/JOSAA.21.001553
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fields of negative index metamaterials. Opt. Express 2006; 14(19): 8694–8705. doi: 10.1364/OE.14.008694
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44 [18] Afzal MU, Esselle KP, Zeb BA. Dielectric Phase-Correcting Structures for Electromagnetic Band Gap Resonator Antennas.
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47 [19] Lalbakhsh A, Afzal MU, Esselle KP, Smith SL. Low-Cost Nonuniform Metallic Lattice for Rectifying Aperture Near-
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51 [20] Jamshidi MB, Lalbakhsh A, Lotfi S, Siahkamari H, Mohamadzade B, Jalilian J. A neuro-based approach to designing a
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2 [23] Kravtsov YA. Complex rays and complex caustics. Radiophysics and Quantum Electronics 1967; 10(9-10): 719–730.
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FIGURE 3 The instantaneous electric field and the field intensity of the 2D Gaussian beam in (A) simulation and (B) measure-
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53 ment (𝑓 = 6.0 GHz, waist width 10 cm, 15 cm away from the aperture). The antenna aperture is positioned at 𝑥 = 0 cm and
54 𝑦 = 0 − 20 cm. (C) The electric field amplitude and phase distributions of the Gaussian beam along 𝑦 axis at the beam waist.
55 The light green color area denotes the beam waist width.
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