A Tunable Zig-Zag Reflective Elastic Metasurface

In this paper, inspired by origami structures, we offer a very simple tuning method to overcome the limitations of general elastic metasurfaces, where only a certain functionality at a certain frequency range can be achieved, by designing a reflective metasurface based on foldable/deployable zig-zag...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Crystals
Main Authors: Zhu-Long Xu, Shi-Bo Yu, Junjie Liu, Kuo-Chih Chuang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-08-01
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4352/12/8/1170
Description
Summary:In this paper, inspired by origami structures, we offer a very simple tuning method to overcome the limitations of general elastic metasurfaces, where only a certain functionality at a certain frequency range can be achieved, by designing a reflective metasurface based on foldable/deployable zig-zag structures. By utilizing peg/screw connections, the folding angles of the zig-zag structures can be easily tuned while also being fixable. By tuning the folding angle, the subunit of the zig-zag metasurface can cover a 2<i>π</i> phase shift span and the phase shift can be tuned continuously, and almost linearly, with respect to the folding angle. With a simple folding motion, the tunable reflective metasurface can steer reflected flexural waves in different directions and focus-reflected flexural waves with different focal distances. In addition to demonstrating tunable performance, the mechanism that associates the changing speed of the phase shift is explained. The proposed tunable zig-zag elastic metasurface provides a new way to design reconfigurable metamaterials/metasurfaces.
ISSN:2073-4352