Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jan 23, 2026

Demonstration of Equal-Intensity Beam Generation by Dielectric Metasurfaces
Published on: June 7, 2019
High-performance and broadband chirality-dependent absorber based on planar spiral metasurface
Abstract:
A perfect absorber is highly desired in many engineering applications, including cloaking devices and sensor detectors, but most types of absorbers with chirality-dependence have limited bandwidth. In this paper, we propose a novel broadband and chirality-dependent metasurface absorber that consists of an array of planar spiral elements. The spiral orientation can determine the absorption polarization, such as counterclockwise for right circular polarization (RCP) absorption and clockwise for left circular polarization (LCP) absorption. Three steps are adopted to enhance the absorption bandwidth: carefully optimizing the spiral turns, impedance of load resistor, and introducing a matching layer. To demonstrate our concept, we have designed and fabricated a realistic metasurface absorber. The numerical simulations are in good agreement with the experimental results. The simulation and measurement results demonstrate that this device can achieve a broadband (8.3-18 GHz) absorption for RCP incidence, while reflecting the LCP incident waves between 9 GHz to 17.8 GHz without changing its chirality. Our findings explore a novel way to realize broadband absorption and simultaneously provide a new strategy to design chirality-dependent multi-functional meta-devices.
Related Concept Videos
Chirality
Chiral objects exhibit a sense of handedness when they interact with another chiral object. For example, our left foot can only fit in the left shoe and not in the right shoe. Achiral objects — objects that have...
Chirality in Nature
Crystal Field Theory - Tetrahedral and Square Planar Complexes
Crystal field theory (CFT) is applicable to molecules in geometries other than octahedral. In octahedral complexes, the lobes of the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals point directly at the ligands. For tetrahedral complexes, the d orbitals remain in place, but with only four ligands located between the axes. None of the orbitals points directly at the tetrahedral ligands. However, the dx2−y2 and dz2 orbitals (along the Cartesian axes) overlap with the ligands less than the dxy,...
Molecules with Multiple Chiral Centers
Chirality at Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Sulfur
A consequence of chirality is the need for enantiomeric resolution. While this is theoretically possible for all...
Planar Rigid-Body Motion
Planar motion is typically divided into three distinct categories. The first is rectilinear translation, demonstrated by a subway train that moves along...

