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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES
Reconfigurable Diffractive Antenna Based on
Switchable Electrically Induced Transparency
Huan Li, Dexin Ye, Fazhong Shen, Bin Zhang, Yongzhi Sun, Weiqiang Zhu,
Changzhi Li, Senior Member, IEEE, and Lixin Ran
Abstract—Coupled electromagnetic resonances have various
important applications in microwave engineering. Among them,
the newly discovered electromagnetically induced transparency
(EIT) has attracted much interest. In this paper, we explore the
use of configurable electrically induced transparency to construct
a microwave “diffractive medium” whose air-like optimally
matched transparency and metal-like optimally reflective opacity
can be conveniently switched by a binary dc voltage. Different
from EITs based on closely coupled resonances, we use decoupled
electrically induced resonances to achieve a low-loss transparency
along with an optimal impedance matching with air. Satisfying the
condition of a lossless perfectly matched layer, such transparency
and opacity can be obtained in a wide range of incident angles.
We validate our approach by experimentally demonstrating two
electrically controlled steering antennas based on diffractive
grating effect, both with thin planar apertures and binary dig-
ital control circuits. The proposed approach can be extended to
higher frequencies, achieving configurable diffractive devices at
millimeter-wave and terahertz frequencies.
Index Terms—Beam steering, diffractive antenna, electrically in-
duced transparency (EIT), Fresnel zone plate (FZP), metamaterial.
I. INTRODUCTION
C OUPLED electromagnetic resonances have important
applications in microwave engineering [1]–[6]. Conven-
tional examples include near-field RF identifications (RFIDs)
based on coupled resonant coils on the reader and tag sides [1],
and microstrip filters consisting of coupled half-wavelength
Manuscript received August 23, 2014; revised November 13, 2014 and Jan-
uary 10, 2015; accepted January 12, 2015. This work was supported by the Na-
tional Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant 61131002 and
Grant 61401393, by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation under Grant
2014M550325, by the China CAST Foundation under Grant 201321, by the
New Generation Ocean Monitoring Project under Grant 408010310, and by the
Program for the Top Young Innovative Talents under Grant Q1313-03.
H. Li, D. Ye, B. Zhang, and L. Ran are with the Laboratory of Applied Re-
search on Electromagnetics (ARE), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027,
China (e-mail: desy@zju.edu.cn; ranlx@zju.edu.cn).
F. Shen was with the Laboratory of Applied Research on Electromagnetics
(ARE), Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. He is now with the
China Research Institute of Radiowave Propagation, Xinxiang 453003, China
(e-mail: sfz@zju.edu.cn).
Y. Sun and W. Zhu are with the Nanjing Institute of Electronic
Equipment, Nanjing 210007, China (e-mail: yzsun8511@126.com;
zhuweq8511@sina.com).
C. Li is with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas
Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79424 USA (e-mail: changzhi.li@ttu.edu).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2015.2393862
0018-9480 © 2015 IEEE. Personal use is permitted, but republication/redistribution requires IEEE permission.
See http://www.ieee.org/publications_standards/publications/rights/index.html for more information.
1
resonant segments [2]. A Recent example is the “mid-range”
wireless power transfer (WPT) [3], [4]. It has been demon-
strated that with coupled high quality-factor resonances, highly
efficient power transmissions and optimal impedance matching
can be simultaneously obtained. This unique property has
also been used in many applications such as the noncontact
measurement of complex permittivity [5] and nondestructive
health monitoring of building materials [6].
In fact, the optimally matched, highly efficient state of a
strongly coupled system can be considered as a state of electro-
magnetically induced transparency (EIT) [7], [8]. In physics,
EIT refers to an effect observed in a three-level atomic medium
in which a narrow transparency window can be observed within
the originally opaque absorption resonance region due to a
laser induced coherent optical resonance [9], [10]. Recently,
EIT-like effects have been considered to exist in many classical
systems such as coupled optical resonators [11], circuits [12],
[13] and artificial metamateirals [14]–[17].
Metamaterials are effective media constructed with
man-made sub-wavelength resonant cells [18]–[20]. Com-
pared with atoms and molecules that comprise natural media,
sub-wavelength resonances are able to move highly dispersive
frequency regions of natural media to microwave and optical
bands. As a result, the effective constitutive parameters, i.e.,
the relative permittivity and permeability, of a metamaterial,
can be freely controlled in a wide range from negative to
positive values [20]. From the effective medium point of view,
constructing a metamaterial with an EIT-like electromagnetic
response implies achieving a narrow frequency band close to
the resonance frequency of its unit cells with an impedance
matched to air and a sufficiently small loss. In this paper,
we will point out that such a state satisfies the condition of a
lossless perfectly match layer (PML) [21], and thus similar
approaches we developed in [22] and [23] to achieve extremely
lossy artificial PMLs can be used to implement metamate-
rial-based EITs.
In this paper, based on the concept and method of meta-
material, we propose a metamaterial surface (also called the
“metasurface”) that exhibits an EIT-like response. Different
from EITs based on closely coupled resonances [14]–[17],
intentionally decoupled Lorentzian resonances induced by
electric fields are used to achieve a low-loss transparency,
along with optimally matched surface impedance with air.
Furthermore, we introduce tunable varactors into the unit cells
to construct a microwave “diffractive medium” whose air-like
optimally matched transparency and metal-like optimally
reflective opacity can be conveniently switched by binary dc
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2 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES

voltages. Satisfying a simplified PML condition, the trans-

parency and opacity can be obtained in a wide range of incident
angles. We validate our approach by experimentally demon-
strating two electrically controlled steering antennas based on
diffractive grating effect, both with thin planar apertures and
concise binary digital control circuits.
This paper is organized as follows. In Section II, based
on an analysis of the EIT effect of a magnetically coupled
circuit system, we propose the construction theory of meta-
material-based EITs with decoupled Lorentzian resonances.
In Section III, we introduce the design, simulation, and fabri-
cation of the controllable diffractive medium. In Section IV,
we introduce the principle of an optical grating, i.e., a Fresnel
zone plate (FZP), and the reconfigurable diffractive steering
antennas based on FZPs realized by the fabricated diffractive
medium. Finally, a conclusion is drawn in Section V.

II. THEORY

A. EIT-Like Response in Magnetically Coupled Loops

A WPT system is essentially a magnetically coupled circuit Fig. 1. Magnetically induced transparency in a coupled system with resonant
coils. (a) Equivalent circuit. (b) EIT-like response.
system whose principle of operation has been analyzed in detail
with coupled mode theory [3]. However, the same results can
also be obtained by circuit theory [5].
is the same as those reported in [12] and [13], Fig. 1(b) indicates
Fig. 1(a) shows the typical equivalent circuit of a magneti-
that strongly coupled resonance can result in a split of the single
cally coupled system consisting of two resonant loops, where
resonance curve. Each of the split resonances has an asymmetric
represents the source, and and are the se-
resonance line similar to a Fano resonance [24] with one edge
ries resistances, capacitances, and inductances of the source and
sharper than the other. As indicated in [25], the existence of
load loops, respectively. also acts as the load resistance con-
Fano resonances can be considered as the source of an EIT.
suming the transferred energy. Obviously, the input impedance
seen by the driving source is B. Transparency With Decoupled Lorentzian Resonances
Thus far, most reported EITs are based on such strongly cou-
(1)
pled resonances shown in Fig. 1(b) [14]–[17]. Attentions are
mostly focused on the anomalous dispersion caused by the sharp
where is the mutual inductance between the edges due to Fano resonances and their applications such as
resonant coils, and is the coupling coefficient. Based on (1), slow wave [26], [27] and ultra-sensitive sensing [17], [28]. In
the power consumed by the resistance of the source loop can this paper, instead, we focus on utilizing the EIT effect to im-
be calculated as plement a theoretically low-loss and optimally matched medium
based on the concept of artificial metamaterial, and further ex-
(2) plore its applications in microwave engineering.
It should be noted that, in practice, it is not easy for con-
ventional EITs based on strongly coupled resonances to obtain
Without loss of generality, we assume nF, an ideal power transparency. In fact, a practical WPT system
nH, , and . In this does not work with split resonances due to the fact that, in a
case, both loops resonate at 1 GHz. “mid-range” distance, the coupling coefficient has become
Fig. 1(b) shows the calculated power dissipation with respect very small [3]. The EIT-like response depicted in Fig. 1(b) with
to frequency by (1) and (2). It is seen that when is zero (black a perfect power transparency only appears when the quality fac-
solid line), meaning that there is no coupling between the reso- tors of strongly coupled coils approach infinity. In this case, the
nant coils, resistance consumes all the power, and the dissi- resonance curve has ultra-steep rising and falling edges, and a
pation curve has a symmetric shape, which is the same as that slight detune of the frequency or a slightly decreased quality
of a typical single resonance. However, when is increased factor of the load loop could result in a large power dissipation
( , blue dashed line in online version), the consumed [12], [13]. According to Kramers–Kronig relations, a highly dis-
power by is decreased, and some power is transferred to the persive frequency region must correspond to a high dissipation
load loop. When the quality factor of the load loop is ultrahigh in a physical system [29].
( , red dotted line in online version), the dissipa- As indicated in [30], EIT-like responses can also be observed
tion in the source loop diminishes to near zero, and all the power at high frequencies when two resonances can be simultaneously
transmits to the load loop. With such an EIT-like response that induced by far-field incidences. Trying to theoretically decrease
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LI et al.: RECONFIGURABLE DIFFRACTIVE ANTENNA BASED ON SWITCHABLE EIT 3

the dispersion in the vicinity of the transparent frequency, we

use decoupled Lorentzian resonances to obtain low-loss EIT-
like responses at microwave frequencies by increasing the fre-
quency interval between the split resonances. As indicated in
[31], if a resonance splitting in an EIT system is able to pro-
duce a sufficiently large separation of resonance frequencies,
the split resonances will change from Fano resonances to de-
coupled Lorentzian resonances.
1) Principle: In microwave theory, an ideal transparency of
a nonmagnetic (meaning that the relative permeability equals
unity) medium requires its impedance, defined by , where
is the complex permittivity, to be perfectly matched to air at the
surface of the medium, and a lossless transmission, described by
the loss tangent of the complex permittivity, inside the medium.
The dispersion of the permittivity determines the transparency
and opacity of the nonmagnetic medium.
For metamaterials, it has been well recognized that the
effective permittivity and permeability exhibit Drude–Lorentz
dispersions. For an anisotropic metamaterial, its effec-
tive complex permittivity and permeability have forms of
and , respectively.
In our previous works [22], [23], we have experimentally
demonstrated that if the above complex permittivity and per-
meability can be precisely controlled to satisfy a modified
uniaxial PML model, such that ,
where complex-valued requires a positive
imaginary part to impart loss to propagating waves, and
is a real constant number, a PML-like absorption with a
perfect impedance matching at the metamaterial surface can
be observed. In order to obtain large dissipation, the operating
frequency is intentionally chosen in the vicinity of Lorentzian
resonances of the unit cells.
It is seen that compared with the PML-like absorption, an
ideal transparency of a metamaterial can be obtained by letting
in the modified PML model approach zero. Furthermore, for Fig. 2. Dispersion of effective permittivity with multiple Lorentzian res-
onances. (a) Single resonance. (b) Coupled resonances. (c) Decoupled
a nonmagnetic metamaterial where always equals unity, a resonances.
simplified lossless PML model can be obtained by letting
. The same as the WPT case, this can be realized
by introducing two electrically induced Lorentzian resonances 1 at infinity frequency, while on the left side, the dielectric con-
in the unit cells of a nonmagnetic metamaterial. stant is always higher than 1. Although a unity dielectric con-
The effective permittivity of a metamaterial consisting of stant can be found inside the anomalously dispersion region, it
sub-wavelength cells with a single and double electric reso- is along with a large imaginary part, which will result in un-
nances can be expressed by avoidable loss and reflection.
Fig. 2(b) shows the case when two resonances at and
(3) simultaneously exist. It is seen that with closely coupled
Lorentzian resonances, the dispersion curve of the real part of
and permittivity between the two resonance regions crosses unity at
frequency . However, although the imaginary part has
(4) been significantly decreased compared with that in Fig. 2(a), it
is still much larger (around 16) than that in the nonresonance
respectively, where , , and ( ) are the plasma, region. This is similar to the case in Fig. 1(b).
resonance, and damping frequencies, respectively. The corre- Fig. 2(c) shows the case when two resonances exist at
sponding Lorentzian dispersions are illustrated in Fig. 2. and , where the two resonances have been notably decou-
Fig. 2(a) shows the case when the unit cells have a single reso- pled. It is seen that the dispersion curve still crosses unity at
nance at frequency . It can be seen that an ideal transparency , and the imaginary part has been decreased to a very
with matched impedance cannot be found in the full range of low level of 0.17. Fig. 2(c) clearly shows that an optimal trans-
spectrum. The reason is that on the right side of the resonance parency with matched impedance can be stably obtained by in-
region, the plasma response let the dielectric constant approach troducing decoupled Lorentzian resonance. It is worth noting
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4 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES
Fig. 3. Transparency of a thin metamaterial layer satisfying a simplified loss-
less PML model.
that although the loss has been significantly reduced after de-
coupling the resonances, the frequency response in the vicinity
of the transparency frequency remains the same as that of a con-
ventional EIT system. Therefore, we can continue to consider
the transparency effect observed in such a Lorentzian medium
as an EIT-like response.
2) Wide Angle of Incidence: Apart from impedance matching
and low loss, a wide angle of incidence is also desired for a
transparent medium. In order to investigate the transparency for
oblique incidences, we analyze the transmission coefficient of a
thin nonmagnetic metamaterial layer with its permittivity satis-
fying the simplified PML model, i.e., . minds us that if
As shown in the inset of Fig. 3, for a TM plane incidence
magnetically polarized along the -direction, the transmission
coefficient can be derived as
where is the angle of incidence,
. For a thickness around 1/40 wave-
length, the transmission coefficient calculated by (5) is shown
in Fig. 3.
It is seen that in an ideal case when the loss tangent
and , a perfect transparency approaching 100% can be
observed for all angles of incidence from 0 to 90 . This corre-
sponds to the case that the metamaterial layer behaves exactly as
the air. With the increase of from 0 to 3.0, the transparency
gradually deteriorates due to increased absorption loss. Even
when equals 1, the transparency is still larger than 90%. It
is interesting that the transparency is not decreased with the in-
crease of the angle of incidence. Instead, there is a slight in-
crease of the transparency with the increased angle due to the
TM incidence. Note that with the TM incidence, the magnetic
field is always parallel to the metasurface, and thus unwanted
parasitic magnetic resonances will not be induced. Finally, when
approaches 90 , and simultaneously approaches 0, re-
sulting in matched impedance when equals to 90 .
Fig. 3 also shows how transparency changes with respect to
the value of . It is seen that except when , which cor-
responds to the case of air, the existence of notably impacts
Fig. 4. Unit cell consisting of a pair of capacitance coupled I-shaped metallic
patterns simultaneously supporting: (a) high-frequency resonance current and
(b) low-frequency resonance current.
the transparency only when the angle of incidence is larger than
50 . When and approaches 90 , while still ap-
proaches zero, no longer equals to 0 at 90 , which will result
in a total reflection at a 90 angle of incidence.
According to Fig. 3, we can conclude that a metasurface
constructed with decoupled Lorentzian resonances intrinsically
supports transparency with a wide angle of incidence once its
effective permittivity can be precisely controlled to satisfy a
simplified model of lossless PML.
3) Switchable Transparency and Opacity: A metasurface
with ideal transparency and a wide angle of incidence is a good
candidate for diffractive applications. Fig. 2(c) also particularly
indicates that the transparency frequency is located on the right
side of the plasma frequency of the resonance at . This re-
can be tuned to a higher frequency, such that
the original transparency frequency is located on the left of the
new plasma frequency, the transparent region can be turned into
a completely opaque region.
In this paper, we will show that this can be accomplished by
introducing microwave varactors into the unit cells of the meta-
(5)
surface. Once such a metasurface can be electrically controlled
to switch its states between transparency and opacity, it can be
and used to implement reconfigurable diffractive devices such as an
FZP.
III. DESIGN, FABRICATION, AND MEASUREMENT
A. Method
As discussed, the key to obtain a metasurface with an ideal
transparency is to introduce decoupled Lorentzian resonances
into its unit cells. In this paper, we use a pair of capacitance
coupled I-shaped unit cells [32]–[34], intending to obtain elec-
trically induced coexisting resonance modes with a large fre-
quency interval, as shown in Fig. 4.
Previous research has demonstrated that electric resonances
can be induced in I-shaped sub-wavelength metallic patterns
[32]–[34]. Therefore, for a pair of I-shaped patterns, a similar
resonance current can be induced by a -polarized electric in-
cidence in each I-shaped cell, as shown in Fig. 4(a). In the
meantime, the capacitance due to the thin gap between the two
cells will short-circuit microwave current, letting the coupled
cells support a lower frequency resonance current with a much
longer resonance length, as shown in Fig. 4(b). According to
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LI et al.: RECONFIGURABLE DIFFRACTIVE ANTENNA BASED ON SWITCHABLE EIT 5

the Maxwell–Garnett theory [29], as long as the size of the cou-

pled cells is sufficiently smaller than wavelength, a metamate-
rial consisting of such periodically arranged cells can be consid-
ered as an effective medium. Apparently, this can be obtained
by trying to minimize the scale of the low-frequency resonance.
Furthermore, according to the resonance patterns in Fig. 4, we
see that only the low-frequency resonance current flows through
the capacitive gap. Therefore, if a dc voltage controlled mi-
crowave varactor can be mounted across this gap, it will mainly
impact the low-frequency resonance, without notably changing
the high-frequency resonance. This can be used to control the
states of the transparency and opacity. Previous research has
shown the effectiveness of using varactors to control the charac-
teristics of periodic structures and dynamically manipulate elec-
tromagnetic waves [35]–[40].
It is worth noting that there is no closed loop in the unit
cell, and therefore no magnetic resonance will be induced by an
electrical incidence. This implies that the obtained metasurface
would be nonmagnetic, having an effective unity permeability
with a negligible imaginary part.

B. Design and Optimization

Fig. 5(a) shows the designed unit cell embedded with a

microwave varactor, Philips Semiconductors' BB143, whose
junction capacitance changes between 6.5–1.5 pF when the dc
bias changes from 0 to 10 V. Interdigital structures are used
to increase the coupling capacitance between two I-shaped
resonators, and accordingly decrease the low-frequency reso-
nance scale. The 18- m-thick copper patterns are printed on
a 2-mm-thick F4B substrate with a dielectric constant of 2.3
and a loss tangent of 0.003. It should be noted that although
the multiple-layer metamaterial in [34] used similar unit cells,
it was optimized to have an effective refractive index tuning
range as large as possible, other than being optimized to satisfy
a PML model.
Full-wave optimization of the unit cell is performed using a
commercial Maxwell equations solver, CST Microwave Studio,
in which the varactor is firstly modeled as a discrete capaci-
tance of 6.5 pF. In the optimization, we intentionally let the low-
frequency resonance be close to the transparency frequency,
to facilitate the control between the states of transparency and
opacity. The optimized dimensions are mm,
mm, mm, mm, mm,
mm, mm, and mm. The simulated
transparency appears around 3.985 GHz, where the periodicity
of the unit cell is around 1/6 of the free-space wavelength, well
satisfying the requirement of the effective medium theory.
Fig. 5(b) shows the retrieved effective permittivity and per-
meability from simulated S-parameters using the retrieval algo-
rithm proposed in [41]. It is seen that two electric Lorentzian res-
onance regions can be clearly observed around 3.5 and 6.0 GHz,
respectively. The 2.5-GHz frequency interval ensures a suffi-
cient decoupling between the resonances, helping to achieve a
near zero imaginary part (around 0.3) of the relative permit-
tivity at the transparency frequency at 3.985 GHz, where its
real part is unity. The permeability, however, remains near unity
Fig. 5. (a) Designed unit cell. (b) Retrieved parameters with the effective ca-
pacitance of the varactor being 6.5 and 2.1 pF, respectively.
over the entire spectrum, except in the vicinity of the two elec-
trical resonance frequencies due to inevitable weak magnetic
anti-resonances [33]. Note that at the transparency frequency,
the imaginary part of the effective permeability is around 0.1.
The retrieved results show that at the transparency frequency,
the effective parameters are close to satisfy the simplified loss-
less PML model for the -polarized incidence.
In Fig. 5(b), we can also see the effective permittivity when
the varactor capacitance is decreased to 2.1 pF. It is seen that at
3.985 GHz, the real part of the permittivity is 120, implying
a nearly complete total reflection and an evanescent transmis-
sion for any incident wave. This result indicates that if the dc
bias of the varactor is controlled such that the junction capac-
itance switches between 6.5–2.1 pF, the states of transparency
and opacity would be switched as well.
In Fig. 6, the full-wave simulation results of the transmission
coefficient ( ) are given to demonstrate the transparency
under wide angle of incidence [see Fig. 6(a)] and the switching
between the transparency and opacity [see Fig. 6(b)]. In
Fig. 6(a), we see that with the 6.5-pF capacitance, when the
angle of incidence changes from 0 to 40 , the transparency
at 4 GHz remains close to 0 dB. In Fig. 6(b), we see that
for normal incidence, when the varactor capacitance changes
from 6.5 to 2.1 pF, the transparency changes from nearly 0
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6 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES
Fig. 6. Simulated transmission of the designed metasurface. (a) Normal and
oblique incidence with a fixed varactor capacitance of 6.5 pF. (b) Normal inci-
dence with different varactor capacitances.
to 40 dB, demonstrating the nearly ideal transparency and
opacity of the designed metasurface in simulation.
C. Fabrication and Measurement
Fig. 7 shows a photograph of the 480 mm 300 mm fabri-
cated metasurface, which consists of 720 unit cells embedded
with the same amount of surface mount varactors. All unit cells
are arranged with 20 rows along the -direction and 36 columns
along the -direction. Each column shares the same dc bias, such
that the surface can be divided into 36 vertical sub-wavelength
zones, each can be independently switched between the trans-
parency and opacity states.
Fig. 8(a) shows the measured results of the transmission
coefficient of the fabricated metasurface for normal and oblique
incidences without bias voltages. As shown in the inset of
Fig. 8(a), the measurement was performed with an Agilent's
8722ES vector network analyzer (VNA) and two horn antennas
acting as transmitting and receiving antennas, respectively.
The fabricated sample was placed between the transmitting and
receiving antennas, with absorber around its edges to eliminate
the diffractive waves due to the limited sample size [42], as
shown in the inset of Fig. 8(b). The setup was calibrated be-
fore the measurement by measuring the transmission between
two horn antennas without the sample [42]. In this way, both
normal and oblique incidences to the sample can be measured
by symmetrically rotating two horn antennas, letting the angle
formed by the normal of the sample surface and the axis of the
antennas be the desired angle of incidence.
Fig. 7. Fabricated metasurface with soldered varactors and dc-bias sockets.
In Fig. 8(a), the maximum transmission appears around
4.0 GHz, with two stopbands on the sides around 3.5 and
6.0 GHz, respectively, which are in accordance with simu-
lations. Due to the ohmic dissipation of the additional series
resistance of varactors, a 1 1.4-dB transmission loss is ob-
served at normal and oblique incidences (see the inset), and the
transparency is inversely proportional to the angle of incidence.
This also complies with the previous analysis in Fig. 3, i.e., a
small loss would not notably impact the transparency; and for
the same loss, oblique incidences would slightly increase the
transparency in a wide range of angle of incidence.
Fig. 8(b) shows the measured transmission at normal inci-
dence when the dc bias is tuned from 0 to 9 V, corresponding to
the junction capacitance changing from 6.5 to 1.5 pF. It is seen
the low-frequency opaque band along with the transparency
windows shifts to the higher frequency with the increase of
dc bias. Particularly, when biased at 9 V, an opaque band with
17-dB transmission coefficient appears around 4.0 GHz.
Fig. 8(b) implies that if the dc bias changes between 0–9 V, the
transparent and opaque states of the sample can be switched. It
is worth noting that the transmission coefficients of the opaque
bands under lower dc bias reach 30 dB, implying that the
reduced opacity with the 9-V bias is due to the deteriorated
performance of the varactor at high-end bias voltages. Even so,
the metasurface still exhibits an opacity, letting only 2% of the
incident power transmit through the metasurface.
Finally, Fig. 8(c) shows the measured results for the opaque
band with an increased angle of incidence. The opaque bands
do not notably change with the angle of incidence, although the
opacity changes in a small range around 2 dB.
IV. DIFFRACTIVE STEERING ANTENNAS
Based on the above measurements, we see that similar to
optical diffractive media like liquid crystals, the fabricated
metasurface can be well considered as a microwave diffraction
medium, whose EIT-like transparent and plasma-like opaque
states can be switched by binary digital controls. Furthermore,
both the transparency and the opacity are not sensitive to the
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LI et al.: RECONFIGURABLE DIFFRACTIVE ANTENNA BASED ON SWITCHABLE EIT
Fig. 8. Measured transparency and opacity of the fabricated metasurface.
(a) Transparency versus angle of incidence. (b) Opacity versus biased dc
voltage. (c) Opacity versus angle of incidence.
angle of incidence, making it suitable for diffractive devices,
such as gratings and FZPs. In this section, we implement two
FZP-based steering antennas, to demonstrate the potential of
the achieved metasurface.
A. FZP Based Beam Steering
In a 1-D case, a transmission FZP consists of a series of alter-
nating transparent and opaque strips [43], as shown in Fig. 9(a).
At microwave frequencies, opaque regions can be implemented
with perfect electric conductors (PECs), and transparent regions
can simply be the air. Assume that a linear source is placed
on the – -plane, and the radiated cylindrical wave illuminates
the FZP. According to the Huygens–Fresnel theorem [44], the
far-field radiation along the direction with an azimuth angle of
7
Fig. 9. Principle of FZP-based beam steering. (a) Transmission FZP. (b) Folded
FZP.
can be considered as the superposition of the secondary ra-
diation from transparent strips located on the plane. The
shortest ray that arrives in the direction is assigned as the
reference ray and its phase is assigned as the reference phase.
The phase difference between ray and can be calcu-
lated by
(6)
where the constant and denote the free-space wave vector
and the distance between the source and the FZP surface, respec-
tively. Those rays provide constructive interference relative to
the reference ray having
(7)
while other rays contribute destructive interference. By making
the FZP transparent to the rays that enable constructive inter-
ference while opaque to the rays that possess destructive inter-
ference, the diffraction maximum can be produced in the prede-
fined deflection angle [43], [45].
Alternatively, FZPs can also work in reflective modes with
inverted transparent and opaque strips with a reflective PEC
ground located 1/4 wavelength away, called the “folded FZP”
[45], as shown in Fig. 9(b). With an additional round-trip
-phase delay and a constructive interference with the reflected
field, the amplitude of the electric field at the FZP plane can be
doubled. Consequently, the folded FZP is able to obtain higher
diffraction efficiency, resulting in higher radiation gain and
lower sidelobes [45].
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
8 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES
Fig. 10. Diffractive patterns on the FZP (a) Beam steering at 0 . (b) Beam
steering at 10 .
B. Transmission FZP Antenna
It is very convenient to implement either a transmission
or a folded FZP using the fabricated metasurface, and fur-
ther obtain the FZP-based steering antenna. As examples,
Fig. 10(a) and (b) shows the required FZP patterns determined
by the calculated phase difference (red lines in online version)
by (6) and (7) for beam steering with 0 and 10 , respectively,
where black regions represent the opaque strips. To obtain such
an FZP, we just need to bias the corresponding columns with 9-
and 0-V voltages for the black and white regions, respectively,
and place a feeding antenna at the calculated focal location.
The focal distance is chosen as 300 mm, slightly longer than
the far-field range of the feeding antenna.
Fig. 11(a) shows a photograph of the transmission FZP-based
diffractive antenna, where a simple array antenna comprised
of two standard microstrip patches acts as the feeding source.
The patches are printed on a 2-mm-thick F4B substrate, with
an operating frequency centered around 4 GHz, a radiation
gain around 9.1 dB, and a beamwidth of 80 in the – -plane.
The measurement of the steered beams was performed in the
anechoic chamber. The fabricated metasurface supported by
a 10-mm-thick layer of low-loss microwave foam was placed
on a rotator, with 300-mm distance in front of the patch array.
A standard horn antenna, Ainfoinc microwave's LB-229, was
used as the reference antenna, and the same VNA of 8722ES
was used to measure the radiation patterns.
Fig. 11(b) shows measured results of the steered beams of
the transmission FZP metasurface. Compared with the defined
steering angles of 0 , 10 , 20 and 30 , the measured angles are
0 , 11 , 22 , and 31 , respectively, very close to the predefined
ones. The small error comes from limited resolution of the FZP
pattern based on the 1/6-wavelength unit cells. Compared with
the 80 beam width of the feeding antenna, the measured beam
width of the main beam is around 12.5 , significantly decreased
Fig. 11. Measurement of the transmission FZP antenna. (a) Experimental
setup. (b) Measured beam steering.
by the enlarged radiation aperture. However, the measured gain
at 0 is 10.4 dB, only 1.3 dB larger than the gain of the feeding
antenna. As shown in Fig. 10(a), the pattern of the transmis-
sion FZP only has two opaque regions, which results in high
sidelobes with 3-dB suppression. This is the reason why the
measured gain is not satisfactory. However, these issues can be
easily solved by increasing the aperture of the metasurface.
It is seen that by applying diffraction effect, radiation beams
can be scanned simply by switching different patterns of the
FZP antenna.
C. Folded FZP Antenna
To implement a folded FZP, the metasurface is backed by a
substrate with a copper foil, spaced with the same 10-mm-thick
microwave foam. Owing to the dispersion of the metasurface,
the spacing does not necessarily need to be 1/4 wavelength.
To understand the operating principle, Fig. 12 shows the mea-
sured reflection coefficient of the metasurface backed with the
copper ground. It is seen that at 4.1 GHz, when the bias switches
between 0–3.5 V, the phase of the reflection coefficient changes
around 180 . In order to obtain a folded FZP, two such dc biases
can be used to produce the diffractive patterns calculated by (6)
and (7) for the folded FZP antenna.
It is seen that when the metasurface acts as a folded FZP, its
phase tunability plays a key role. Fig. 12(b) shows the measured
amplitude of the reflection coefficient with the same dc biases.
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
LI et al.: RECONFIGURABLE DIFFRACTIVE ANTENNA BASED ON SWITCHABLE EIT
Fig. 12. Measured reflection coefficient of the metasurface backed with copper
ground. (a) Phase. (b) Amplitude.
With the backed copper ground, the reflection loss of the meta-
surface is around 5.5 dB at 4.1 GHz, larger than the transmis-
sion loss around 1.4 dB in Fig. 7(b). Note that in the folded
FZP case, the incident wave transmits through the metasurface
twice, resulting in a doubled transmission loss. Furthermore, ac-
cording to [40] and [46], when the metasurface is backed with a
ground plane, the zero phase of the reflection coefficient would
correspond to the existence of a magnetic surface, where mag-
netic resonance will be inevitably induced between the metas-
furface and the ground plane at a frequency satisfying the res-
onance condition. In this case, an increased loss in the vicinity
of 4.1 GHz is inevitable. In order to obtain a low-loss folded
FZP, apart from employing low-loss varactors, the unit cell can
be further optimized to expand the frequency interval between
the dips at 4.06 and 4.23 GHz in Fig. 12(b), and thus the loss at
4.1 GHz can be effectively decreased.
The experimental setup of the folded FZP antenna is shown
in Fig. 13(a). The setup is similar to that in Fig. 11(a). The dif-
ference is that the ground-backed metasurface acts as a planar
reflector with diffraction patterns with -phase difference. With
the same feeding antenna placed 300 mm in front of the meta-
surface, predefined radiation beams pointing to 0 , 10 , 20 ,
and 30 , respectively, are measured, and the results are shown
in Fig. 13(b). It is seen that the measured beam deflections are
0 , 9 , 20 , and 32 , respectively. The measured gain at 0 de-
flection angle is 8.6 dB, with an beam width around 12 . As
expected, the sidelobe suppression of the folded FZP is notably
improved compared with the transmission FZP. However, the
measured gain is lower than that due to the increased loss of the
reflection coefficient discussed above.
We see that it is also very convenient to steer the beam in a
wide angle with the folded FZP metasurface.
9
Fig. 13. Measurement of the folded FZP antenna. (a) Experimental setup.
(b) Measured beam steering.
D. Discussions
Diffraction is a fundamental phenomenon in optics and
electromagnetics. Due to the existence of plenty of configurable
diffractive media such as liquid crystals [47] and optically con-
trolled semiconductors [48], diffraction has been widely used
in optical applications. Lacking electrically controlled diffrac-
tive media in the microwave and millimeter-wave regime,
diffractive antennas and other diffractive microwave devices
are seldom reported. In this ab initio work, we artificially
implemented such a medium and demonstrated its applications
with FZP antennas. In theory, our method can be used to
obtain an ideal configurable diffractive medium with optimal
transparency, opacity, and matched surface impedance, better
than liquid crystals. Note that optical diffractive media, such as
liquid crystals and optically controlled semiconductors, are not
ideal diffractive media because both of their transparency and
opacity are not impedance matched.
It is interesting to see that the demonstrated FZP antennas
are able to have some unique features. For the folded FZP an-
tenna shown in Fig. 13(a), while its configuration looks like a
reflector antenna, it has a flat aperture, and it can steer the beams
like a phased-array antenna without moving the feeding antenna
[49]. In fact, the transparency and opacity of the metasurface
can also be controlled by continuous dc biases, making it pos-
sible to dynamically control the beam width and sidelobes, ob-
taining more reconfigurable properties of the proposed diffrac-
tive FZP antennas. In the folded FZP case, since each unit cell
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
10
can be individually biased from the back of the metallic ground,
a 2-D beam steering similar to the optically controlled steering
antenna reported in [48] can also be obtained. Finally, compared
with the traditional phased-array antennas, phase is simply con-
trolled by reconfiguring the diffractive pattern on the surface.
Without discrete radiation elements, T/R modules, and phase
shifters, an FZP antenna can have a very simple structure.
As a reconfigurable antenna, the operating frequency of an
FZP antenna is determined by the diffractive pattern, which can
be reconfigured in a wide frequency range, whose upper bound
is only limited by the aperture of the FZP. However, for a given
central frequency, FZP antennas are naturally narrowband based
on (6) and (7). According to the experimental results shown in
Fig. 8(a) and (b), at the normal incidence around 4 GHz, the
3-dB bandwidth of the transmission and opacity coefficients
are around 14% and 8%, respectively. Therefore, the fabricated
metasurface has wider transparency and opacity bandwidth than
the narrowband FZPs', whose bandwidth is normally assumed
as less than 5%. Obviously, further increasing the separation be-
tween the decoupled resonances will increase the 3-dB trans-
parency bandwidth of the metasurface.
Compared with metamaterial lens antennas that require mul-
tiple layers to obtain sufficient phase difference [34], the use
of a single-layer metasurface and a binary control significantly
decrease the loss, weight, expense, power consumption, and
system complexity. Operating at a lossless PML-like state,
the theoretical loss of the single-layer metasurface is also
effectively reduced. However, the transparency losses shown
in Fig. 8 are still larger than the simulated results. We assume
this is due to the introduced parasitic loss of the used varactors.
According to the manufacturer, BB143 varactors are optimized
at UHF frequencies. We believe the loss of the metasurface can
be significantly decreased by using low-loss C-band varactors.
It is worth noting that the purpose of this work is to demonstrate
the principle and possibility of achieving microwave diffractive
media, other than obtaining optimal performance. However, we
have also discussed the methods to further improve the perfor-
mances of the fabricated metasurface and the FZP antennas.
Finally, although the demonstrated metasurface works at
microwave frequencies, our approach also applies for higher
frequency bands, as long as devices with controllable capaci-
tance or inductance can be obtained. Our method is particularly
useful at sub-millimeter and terahertz frequencies, where
achieving high-performance conventional phased-array an-
tennas meets more difficulties. With short wavelengths, FZPs
with relatively large electrical sizes are able to further improve
the steering range and suppress the sidelobes.
V. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, we have explored the use of configurable elec-
trically induced transparency to construct a microwave “diffrac-
tive medium” whose air-like optimally matched transparency
and metal-like optimally reflective opacity can be conveniently
switched by binary dc voltages. Different from EITs based on
closely coupled resonances, we use decoupled electrically in-
duced resonances to achieve a low-loss transparency along with
an optimal impedance matching with air. Satisfying the condi-
tion of the low-loss perfectly matched layer, such transparency
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES
and opacity can be obtained in a wide range of angle of in-
cidence. We validate our approach by experimentally demon-
strating two electrically controlled steering antennas based on
diffractive grating effect, both have thin planar apertures and
concise control circuits. The proposed approach can be extended
to high-frequency bands, achieving configurable diffractive de-
vices at millimeter-wave, terahertz, and even optical frequen-
cies.
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Huan Li received the B.S. degree from Xidian
University, Xi'an, China, in 2011, and is currently
working toward the Ph.D. degree at Zhejiang Uni-
versity, Hangzhou, China.
He is currently with the Laboratory of Applied Re-
search on Electromagnetics (ARE), Zhejiang Univer-
sity. His recent research interests include microwave
circuits, antennas, measurement, and artificial meta-
materials.
Dexin Ye received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in
electrical engineering from Zhejiang University,
Hangzhou, China, in 2007 and 2013, respectively.
As a Visiting Ph.D. Student, he visited the Univer-
sity of Arizona for six months and the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology for one year from 2011 to
2013. In 2014, he became a Postdoctoral Fellow with
the Department of Information and Electronics Engi-
neering, Zhejiang University, where he is affiliated
with the Laboratory of Applied Research on Elec-
tromagnetics (ARE). His recent research interests in-
clude artificial active metamaterials, perfectly matched layers, and RF and mi-
crowave applications.
Fazhong Shen received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees
from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou China, in 2008
and 2013, respectively.
Since 2014, he has been with the China Research
Institute of Radiowave Propagation, Xinxiang,
China. His research interests include measurement
and imaging of material property and wireless power
transfer.
 This article has been accepted for inclusion in a future issue of this journal. Content is final as presented, with the exception of pagination.
12
Bin Zhang received the B.S. degree in electrical en-
gineering from the Vocational and Technological Ed-
ucation Center, Huzhou, China, in 2004.
He is currently an Experimental Assistant with
the Department of Information and Electronic
Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Yongzhi Sun received the Ph.D. degree from the
State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Wave, Southeast
University, Nanjing, China.
He is currently the Team Leader of the Antenna
Division, Nanjing Institute of Electronic Equipment,
Nanjing, China. His research interests include new
concept antenna systems, RF and microwave devices,
and microwave absorbing materials.
Dr. Sun was the recipient of multiple government
awards under the Program for the Top Young Inno-
vative Talents, the 333 Project of Jiangsu Province,
and the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation.
Weiqiang Zhu received the B.S. and M.S. degrees
in electronic and opto-electronic engineering from
the Nanjing University of Science and Technology,
Nanjing, China, and the Ph.D. degree in electronic
engineering from the Second Institute of China
Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation,
Beijing, China.
He is currently a Senior Researcher and the Vice
Director of the Nanjing Institute of Electronic Equip-
ment, Nanjing, China. His recent research interests
include passive radio orientation and localization,
electromagnetic fields and microwave technology, and signal and information
processing.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES
Changzhi Li (S'06–M'09–SM'13) received the B.S.
degree in electrical engineering from Zhejiang Uni-
versity, Hangzhou, China, in 2004, and the Ph.D. de-
gree in electrical engineering from the University of
Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA, in 2009.
In the summers of 2007–2009, he was with
Alereon Inc., Austin, TX, USA, and Coherent Logix
Inc., Austin, TX, USA, where he was involved
with ultra-wideband (UWB) transceivers and soft-
ware-defined radio. In 2009, he joined Texas Tech
University, Lubbock, TX, USA, as an Assistant
Professor in 2009, and became an Associate Professor in 2014. His research
interests include biomedical applications of microwave/RF, wireless sensor,
and RF/analog circuits.
Dr. Li is an associate editor for the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON CIRCUITS AND
SYSTEMS—II: EXPRESS BRIEFS. He was the recipient of the ASEE Frederick
Emmons Terman Award (2014), the IEEE-HKN Outstanding Young Profes-
sional Award (2014), and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early
CAREER Award (2013). He was also the recipient of nine Best Conference/Stu-
dent Paper Awards as author/advisor of IEEE-sponsored conferences.
Lixin Ran received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees
from Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 1991,
1994 and 1997, respectively.
In 1997, he became an Assistant Professor, in
1999, an Associate Professor, and in 2004, a Full
Professor with the Department of Information and
Electronics Engineering, Zhejiang University. He
is also currently the Director of the Laboratory of
Applied Research on Electromagnetics (ARE). In
2005, 2009 and 2012, he visited the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, as a Visiting Scientist. He
has coauthored over 130 research papers published in peer-reviewed journals.
He holds over 30 patents. His research interests include new concept antennas,
radio-aware sensing and imaging, RF, microwave and terahertz systems, and
artificial active media.