Wide-angle and high-efficiency flat retroreflector

We propose a flat retroreflector that can efficiently reflect the electromagnetic waves back along its incident direction in a wide continuous range of angles. This retroreflector consists of a quadratic metalens and a flat metallic reflector at the focal plane of the former. The quadratic metalens is a dielectric pillar array encoded with a quadratic phase profile and it is embedded in the top side of the substrate. The flat reflector is on the bottom side of the substrate. The designed retroreflector has a diameter of 40 mm, a thickness of 15 mm, and a working frequency of 77 GHz. Through meta-units optimization, a retroreflection efficiency of 38.51% at +/- 60 degrees incidence and an average retroreflection efficiency of 46.39% for the incident angles from 0 degrees to 60 degrees can be numerically demonstrated. This flat retroreflector is easy for integration, which is promising for potential applications in the miniature wireless communication systems. (C) 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement

Automated summary

We propose a flat retroreflector that efficiently reflects electromagnetic waves back along its incident direction. The retroreflector consists of a quadratic metalens and a flat metallic reflector. Numerical results demonstrate high retroreflection efficiency at different incident angles. This flat retroreflector is easy to integrate and holds promise for applications in miniature wireless communication systems.