A 20-Gbps Beam-steered Infrared Wireless Link Enabled by a Passively Field-programmable Metasurface
Abstract
Beam steering is one of the main challenges in energy-efficient and high-speed infrared light communication. To date, active beam-steering schemes based on a spatial light modulator (SLM) or micro-electrical mechanical system (MEMS) mirror, as well as the passive ones based on diffractive gratings, have been demonstrated for infrared light communication. Here, for the first time to our knowledge, an infrared beam is steered by 35{\deg} on one side empowered by a passively field-programmable metasurface. By combining the centralized control of wavelength and polarization, a remote passive metasurface can steer the infrared beam in a remote access point. The proposed system keeps scalability to support multiple beams, flexibility to steer the beam, high optical efficiency, simple and cheap devices on remote sides, and centralized control (low maintenance cost), while it avoids disadvantages such as grating loss, a small coverage area, and a bulky size. Based on the proposed beam-steering technology, we also demonstrated a proof-of-concept experiment system with a data rate of 20 Gbps.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2006.12152,
title = {A 20-Gbps Beam-steered Infrared Wireless Link Enabled by a Passively Field-programmable Metasurface},
author = {Jianou Huang and Chao Li and Yu Lei and Ling Yang and Yuanjiang Xiang and Alberto G. Curto and Lei Guo and Zizheng Cao and Yue Hao and A. M. J. Koonen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2006.12152},
year = {2020}
}